#i have managed to come up with and whose stories i've written

[fionnaskyborn]

and TODAY ON "Songs Fionna can't listen to without them fucking her up immensely and remind her why she doesn't listen to them very often every time she listens to them", we have:

[intimacyequalsdeath]

heyya!!!... Beautiful💐.

I see requests are currently open, so if you don't mind... can I request a sexy wife s/o who loves to cook and will always make slasher food? And prepare all their needs (you know like a good wife in general🙃),My twin sisters really like their slasher Especially for Bo, Lester, Vincent, Thomas hewitt,Charles Lee Ray and Michael Myers...

Oh, I also think it would be great if they had obedient children with the wife s/o. They know how their father is and they choose not to worry too much about it. Please....I'm sorry if I requested when your requests were closed, but, I've been looking for a blog for a long time whose requests are still open and finally I found your blog 😭.

My twin sister is sick and I want her to be able to read the story you made from my request 🙏.

Love you dear

Thank you so much for the request sweet anon! <3 I hope me deciding to do Headcannons for each story was ok to anon. Sorry this took so long, I worked on it in chunks over the course of a few different days.

Also I hope you sister feels better soon Anon <3 <3

Slashers with a good little wife and good little children: The Sinclairs. Michael Myers, Thomas Hewitt and Charles Lee Ray.

Also not my gifs, not of the gifs I use are ever mine and full credit goes to the original creators <3

Notes: Minors DNI, Written with AFAB in mind as per request, suggestive themes. Story under the cut. Request centers around "traditional" wife roles. Talks of pregnancy and children.

<3 : Bo loves the idea of having a good little wife and good little children to boot. He just never thought living in Ambrose and as a man with his hobbies he would get to experience that, until he met you.

<3: You instantly took over cleaning and cooking, even some of the spots in Ambrose no one even went into anymore. You had no idea how the boys had managed to survive so long with living like they were raised in a barn.

<3: Bo also liked how you liked to steer clear of anything having to do with his business and what went on at the gas station.

"it ain't your place" He murmured once into your hair when you asked him about it when the relationship was still relatively new. That was the first and only time he ever had to tell you that.

<3: Bo was thrilled by your want to stay out of his and mind your own that it was surprising when you ultimately fell pregnant after only about a year being in Ambrose. As if he'd let you leave.

<3: Bo let you take care of all the child rearing duties, with him being gone usually all day it was just easier plus the last thing he wants to come home too is crying children after a long day.

<3 As the children grew you had to teach them about what their father and uncles and explain why it would be inappropriate to ask anyone about it. All they needed to know was that they were safe and their daddy loves them.

<3 The sight of you being rounded with HIS baby also does things to Bo, So don't be surprised if he makes it a goal to keep you pregnant as often as possible.

<3 Bo would be a in and out father I think though, not that he means to be he does love the children. His relationship with his own father affects how active he is a lot of the time and since that's the only father figure he has to go off of he doesn't wanna turn out like him.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Papa!' The children yelled as they ran through the door of the gas station to their father. You had a free instance of free time so you thought you'd bring them down to bring Bo some lunch.

"There's my babies" Bo said opening his arms to catch all 3 of them up in them. He turned to you poised and ready for the kiss you planted on his lips as you set the basket of food down on the counter.

"We made you lunch papa!" Your youngest girl said as he placed her back on the floor. Bo smiled at her.

"You did now didya?" All three children nodded as you opened the basket and began to explain to Bo what you made him. It wasn't long before your family bubble was interrupted by a car pulling up outside.

Bo's gaze hardened as he turned to look outside the station windows he then turned to you and the kids before barking an order.

"You four need to go on and get back to the house now" He said, The children having been through this before nodded before falling in line behind you to head back home.

"I'll come get ya'll when I'm done" Bo said planting a last kiss to your lips before you waddled out of the gas station, giant pregnant belly and all three little ducklings in tow.

<3 Soft mushy Vincent is soft and mushy.

<3 You are his doting little wife and he is your doting husband. His heart swells every time he sees you coming down into the basement with a plate of food and a drink.

<3 At first he was a bit nervous about you growing board of Ambrose since he wouldn't let you be involved but when he saw you begin to clean literally anything and everything he figured you were alright.

<3 Vincent loves your cooking and it actually helps rouse him out of the basement to come and sit at the table with you and his brothers.

<3 When you fell pregnant the first time, He was stunned. Like truly stunned. He never thought fatherhood more or less being a husband was in the cards for him ever.

<3 To know have both he couldn't believe it. A cute little house wife and a baby he hoped would look just like you.

<3 If the baby isn't twins expect to start trying for a sibling right away. Vincent like his brothers adores the sight of you pregnant with his baby. It awakens a primal instinct inside of him to be the provider and keep you safe at all costs.

<3 Vincent would be afraid that the baby would be afraid of his face or his mask, no matter how many times you assured him other wise he couldn't help but worry.

<3 If the children grow up to question their fathers face or what he does in Ambrose, you and Vincent will tell them the loose truth obviously omitting a lot of detail. At least until their old enough.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Vincent, your her daddy. She'd never be afraid of you" You told him softly, reaching out in an attempt to hand him your daughter.

Ever since she was born Vincent refused to hold her as he didn't wanna scare her off with his mask or his face.

He looked into your eyes as he went to shake his head, before he could though you had shoved your baby into his arms and positioned his hands in the proper places to hold her.

Vincent jumped at your sudden action but was never the less quick to cradle his daughter. He looked down at her once she was settled and when his eyes met hers that matched your perfectly he felt his breath leave his body.

Vincent had never experienced a feeling like this in his entire life and doubted he would ever feel it again. He was head over heels in love with this little human the two of you had made together and from that day he vowed that anyone who tried to come in-between him and his family would have him to answer too.

<3 Lester is used to cooking and cleaning his own space so it takes him awhile to get used to you doing it for him.

<3 He appreciates it greatly but he doesn't fully understand why you would want to clean up behind him like you do though. Like he picks up roadkill all day who would want to smell that?

<3 He doesn't complain about you cooking though, He thinks your food is amazing and it's great to come home to a warm cooked meal every night.

<3 You do so much for him so don't be surprised if Lester comes home every so often with little gifts he's collected for you. Some of them may or may not come from victims but as Lester's good little wifey you never question it, you just press your lips to his and thank him for the thoughtful gift.

<3 When you fall pregnant, again like his brothers, Lester is thrilled. He can't be in the same room as you without running his hands up and down your swollen belly while trying to feel the baby kick.

<3 Lester wants a football team of children, so be prepared to make many renovations to the cabin the two of you share to accommodate all the children.

<3 Lester loves bringing his sons out on the road with him when their old enough and with your permission of course. He'd never let them participate in anything Bo or Vincent do but helping him with roadkill is just fine by him.

<3 If any of the kids ever questions what their uncles do in Ambrose and why Lester doesn't usually want them around it, He'll tell them that it's because of Vincent's delicate projects and that answer is enough for the kids.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Nah sweetpea, you know why you can't go to Ambrose" Lester softly told your son after the fifth time he had asked to go see his uncles. Your son sighed and pouted slightly before speaking.

"I know uncle Vincent's art is easy to break but I promise I won't ruin anything"

"My love, I've told you it's rude to question your father" You piped up from your chair in the living room, running a hand over your slightly swollen belly. "Why don't you go join your brothers outside for a bit before dinner, and stay where we can see you" He gave you a sad look but nodded and went through the front door outside.

"I know the boys love Vinny and Bo, but I just want em to be safe" Lester told you sitting on the arm of your chair and putting a hand over yours sitting on your belly.

"I know Les, but when their older they'll understand why we have rules" You shot him a smile and he gratefully returned it. He was so lucky to get someone so understanding of the "Family Business"

<3 Thomas was raised to be a family man. Luda Mae had always told him growing up that one day he would need to find a wife to continue the Hewitt family with.

<3 Enter you, ending up at the Hewitt farm like so many others, but not meeting the same fate as them.

<3 Thomas would've easily put babies before marriage but Luda Mae insisted that you two do it the traditional way and get married first.

<3 You were quick to win her over with your affinity to help out with cooking and other house chores. Especially when it came to taking care of her darling boy Thomas. She was thrilled he had found someone who loved him so much.

<3 In the Hewitt house hold with Monty and Charlie both breathing down your neck, it's easy to be reminded to leave the mans work to Thomas and just focus on helping Luda with whatever she needs.

<3 When you fall pregnant with the first baby, the whole house hold is thrilled.

<3 Luda, Charlie and Monty all never thought they would see the day that Thomas would continue the Hewitt family tree so it was a very big deal when you fell pregnant with Luda's first grandchild.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Now darlin' you know your not supposed to be doing anything in your state" Luda reprimanded as she walked into the kitchen to see you doing dishes.

"I know mama but laying in bed all day everyday is driving me nuts" You told her drying off a plate you were washing. Luda joined you at the sink grabbing a cup to wash it before handing it to you to dry.

"When I was pregnant with Charlie I almost got driven up a wall myself. Just don't let Tommy see, You'll never hear the end of it" She said giving you a small smile before heading back to the living room.

You stood at the sink and continued to wash until you heard familiar footsteps heading up the basement stairs, you tried to pretend like you weren't washing dishes but it was too late, Tommy was on you in an instant.

"Tommy hun it's ok!" You pleaded as he took the dishes out of your hands and herded you towards a chair. You couldn't help yourself but the laugh of how your giant husband could be turned so soft and attentive with you.

You grabbed Tommy's hands before he made you sit down and placed them onto your rounded belly. His eyes met yours instantly and your foreheads pressed together.

"Tommy we're fine, I promise honey." Tommy looked at you incredulously before rolling his eyes and huffing at you, you laughed. If there was one thing in this world Tommy couldn't say no too it was you.

<3 Now Charles I could see being a bit different. Sure he adores having someone cleaning and cooking since he's out doing what a serial killer does most of the time but when it comes to kids he's a bit hesitant.

<3 He loves that you love to cook for him. It's nice having warm meals to come home too for once, Brownie points if their his favorite foods.

<3 Doesn't so much like when you get on him about tracking blood through the house or getting one too many stains on his clothes.

<3 If you really want a baby start telling him how lonely you are when he leaves for long periods of time to go kill people. He'll give you want you want as long as the baby stays out of his way.

<3 He'll be a good dad though don't get me wrong and he'll love the kid or kids just as much as you but he's a busy guy that's got shit to do so he mainly sees them as your responsibility.

<3 Might get jealous of all your attention going to the baby though, he understands it has too but that doesn't mean he has to be happy about it all the time.

<3 Your never going to be the picture perfect family but for your Charles will try his best to give you and the kids everything you'd ever need.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Charles! what have I told you about tracking blood in the house!" Your voice echoed through the house. You heard a muffled laugh as he rounded the hallway with your 3 month old in his arms.

"Babe I'm sorry, you know I never mean too sometimes it just happens" He said adjusting your bundle of joy in his arms.

"Whaddya think kid should mommy forgive me just this once?" He asked your child you babbled in response.

"You said just this once the last three times chuck" You deadpanned before breaking a smile when he did.

"Just a hazard of the job toots" He laughed, You joined him before your eyes were met with the deep red splotches on the blazer he was wearing.

His eyes followed yours before his froze and turned to walk away with the baby in tow as you yelled out behind him.

"Charles! The blood!"

<3 The only inkling of what a normal family functions like that Michael has ever gotten was from his childhood, and to be honest I think his memories of that are very few and far between.

<3 You want to do what for him? Cook and clean ? why on earth would you want to do that for? Michael is confused.

<3 Though preparing to go out and finding a nice fresh out of the dryer jumpsuit all nice and warm and clean for him is quite nice. Michael thinks this is something he could get used to.

<3 On those late nights where he comes back late and finds plates of dinner wrapped in tinfoil ready for him to either heat up or eat just like that is also something he could get used too. It tastes way better then what he usually eats (Totally not dog, totally not)

<3 When kids get brought up though, it's a different story. I could honestly see him not really being all for it at least not at first.

<3 He's really like Charles but more so into the you can have kids as long as they stay far out of his way.

<3 His feelings towards them also aren't the most parental either. He loves them ? At least, Michael feels an emotion he could probably equate to love about them.

<3 But yeah I think for Michael it's best you just keep the kids clear of him. It's not easy when your father is the shape of Haddonfield.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Welcome home Mike!, your dinner is wrapped up on the counter love" You greeted him as he came home after a night of terrorizing the town. Placing a kiss to the cheek of his mask.

Michael nodded wordlessly, as always, and turned to go into the kitchen. Tonight you had made his favorite, or at least what you only thought was one of his favorites by the way he every so slightly changed reactions every time you made it.

You gave him a second before following him into the kitchen and sitting next to him at the island. You watched as he lifted his mask up for each bite of food before lowering it to chew.

You made the mistake of questioning him once as to why he didn't just take the mask off. It was early on in the relationship and his hand instinctively went to his knife before you even finished asking. That was how you learned it's better to just not ask Michael questions at least not about the mask.

The two of you sat in silence, a routine you repeated pretty much every night unless you were already asleep when he got home. You would spend all day cleaning and making sure everything was ship shape for him then you would greet your monster of a man when he came through your front door.

You were brought out of your thoughts when Michael's plate crashed into the sink and broke into pieces. Michael still didn't understand how to not hold the plate too high and just to sit it in the sink.

Looks like something you'll still have to work on. No one said the shape of Haddonfield was smart when it came to chores anyway.

[genericpuff]

wait wait wait, regarding that Minthe post, you're telling me that Rachel literally wrote the character as having BPD.....and portrayed her as an abusive mean piece of shit??? WOW. fucking WOW. sorry for being so angry, but even if she "retconned" that - it's still so god damn disrespective. as someone who has BPD it hurts so much to see my mental illness villanised :(

ugh I'm so sorry pal. and I don't blame you for being angry about it, like I don't even have BPD and I'M fucking pissed LOL like I can understand why Rachel might have wanted to backtrack from that knowing fully well that Minthe's story wasn't gonna have a happy ending, but writing her with BPD in the first place and then BACKTRACKING from it as soon as she likely got heat for it (or just realized it wasn't a good look) isn't much better because it means now all she's done is written the stigmatized negative effects of BPD into her character without showing the more positive outlooks of healing and managing. Maybe that was doomed to happen considering Minthe is someone who doesn't get a happy ending in the myths, but it begs the question of why she'd write her with BPD to begin with because in hindsight it really does seem like she just wanted to use it as a way to make her "evil".

But like, when you read the actual episode, you can SEE the potential there for character growth, you can SEE that she's aware of her actions - but doesn't understand why she's "like that" which is a VERY common feeling among people with undiagnosed mental illnesses - but it was never meant to be.

Like jfc not only is it HEAVILY IMPLIED, but again, the episode is literally called "Splitting". And we see exactly that with Minthe, who can't seem to rationalize with herself that she messed up.

But... that leads me to another point that I failed to mention in that first ask response: she DIDN'T mess up. Like, yes, she messed up by escalating it to the point of slapping Hades, but it wasn't her fault that she didn't make it to her date with Hades. Whose fault was it?

Continuously throughout the first season we see Thetis being an awful influence who manipulates and gaslights Minthe. They're "friends", but it's clear Thetis does not have Minthe's best interests in mind. In this very scene we see Thetis manipulate Minthe and even attempt to get her so drunk that she won't be able to show up to her date. And then of course when that plan works and Minthe freaks out, Thetis spins it around on Minthe in a very passive-aggressive way.

But of course, the narrative has to find a way to turn this whole thing on Minthe being the bad guy. Hence we get the slap which shifts the focus entirely away from what led up to it back onto Hades who has, in a lot of ways, put her in a situation that she can't control. And of course, being in those kinds of situations does not help with mental health.

Like, sorry, I'm really going off here now, but... the slap happens in Episode 76.

When is it finally addressed again? Episode 103.

It took Rachel nearly THIRTY EPISODES to finally bring it back to Minthe, and in that time the reader has spent SEVERAL EPISODES reading about how sad and lonely Hades is, and about how cute and lovey he is with Persephone. The reader has not had ANY time to reflect on Minthe's circumstances, because it completely pivots away from her to focus on H x P as a sort of distraction from the fact that Minthe is a victim in her own right.

And when it DOES return to Minthe in 103, we get this harrowing reminder that her entire life is dependent on Hades-

And once again, here comes Thetis to the "rescue", reinforcing the negative feedback loop that Minthe is trapped in where she's put in unhealthy situations. She drags her to a bar and the whole time Minthe is not having fun because she's understandably still reeling from what happened.

Now we DO get some character development here, where Minthe realizes exactly what I've just finished explaining, that Thetis isn't her friend, that she'd rather not have Thetis as a friend than continue being talked down to and manipulated.

But then, as we know, because Rachel still needs Minthe to be the "bad guy", the breakup between Hades and Minthe winds up being all about Persephone from a POV that attempts to villainize Minthe for being "jealous" (rather than focusing on how shitty Hades actually is for having an emotional affair with Persephone to begin with) and then Minthe goes right back to hanging out with Thetis anyways for the sake of having the "evil other girl" who wants to "ruin" H x P's relationship.

It's not until Season 3 that we finally see Minthe tell Thetis to fuck off for good, but by then it's too little too late, and Minthe has lost an entire character arc. Rachel tries to go "see! Minthe's life is so much better now that she's taking care of children!" but that's an entirely different solution to a problem Minthe never had. She never got treatment for her BPD. She just got away from H x P which, while is a good thing, isn't actually analyzed as such. It's treated more as a "good thing" for H x P and the readers, because now they don't have to be subjected to Minthe's evil scheming anymore, something something "the evil is defeated". And don't even get me started on this comic's problem with constantly resolving female characters' story arcs through motherhood.

It bums me out so fucking much. Minthe deserved so much better. She's one of the many characters in LO who make it so painfully ironic when they're done dirty, because despite Rachel's attempts to write a "feminist retelling" that focuses on "moving on from trauma", she's inadvertently done more damage to feminism and the stigmas around mental health and trauma through her assassination of grounded and realistic and relatable characters like Minthe and Demeter who are shown ZERO empathy or understanding for their actions (unless it can be done so by making Persephone and Hades into the heroes). It happens so often throughout the comic it almost feels like how the comic markets itself as a "progressive feminist retelling" is some sick joke that I'm just not getting.

[alexanderwales]

The Index

This is an index of things I've written and posted online, with minimal descriptions because most of them have blurbs if you click the link. This list is not exhaustive, especially because there are a bunch of short stories and dribbles in various places. If something you liked is missing, let me know.

Web Serials

Worth the Candle - Juniper Smith is a teenaged Dungeon Master who ends up in a world filled with all the things he dreamt up for his campaigns, along with signs of his friend who died months earlier. This Used to be About Dungeons - Five teenagers live in a house together, bake bread, tend the garden, and occasionally fight monsters in dungeons. Thresholder - Thresholders travel from world to world, fantasy one minute and scifi the next, always encountering an opponent, growing stronger as they battle. Shadows of the Limelight - Fame gives you superpowers, and Dominic just saved the world's greatest hero from defeat in full view of a large audience. Glimwarden (unfinished) - A small town huddles around lanterns that keep the darklings at bay. Four teenagers must grow in power as the darkness encroaches. The Dark Wizard of Donkerk (unedited) - Two men steal a baby from an orphanage, then find out he's too cute to sacrifice and raise him as their own.

Fanfic

The Metropolitan Man (Superman) - Lex Luthor attempts to unravel the secrets of the alien. A Common Sense Guide to Doing the Most Good (Superman) - Superman gets really into effective altruism. Instruments of Destruction (Star Wars) - A fable of project management aboard the second Death Star, through the eyes of Admiral Tian Jerjerrod. Branches on the Tree of Time (Terminator) - Sarah Connor is working as a software engineer at UCLA when a naked man shows up on her doorstep. A Bluer Shade of White (Frozen) - Elsa can make life, and Olaf is smarter than he looks.

Shorts

Eager Readers in Your Area - Artificial intelligence has left authors scrambling for readers. Charlotte clicks on an ad. Variations - An orc visits an art exhibition where she feels out of place. Contratto - Julia takes a job as a marketer, working for the vampires to keep their secrets safe. The Randi Prize - James Randi offers a prize for anyone who can demonstrate supernatural abilities. Coming Home - After a long time isekaied to a fantasy kingdom, an errant father has coffee with his estranged son.

I also post short stuff to this very tumblr, which can usually be found under the #microfiction tag unless I forget. Usually this is mirrored on AO3, unless I'm lazy.

Web Comics

Millennial Scarlet - Lamont Pearce is a gig economy demon hunter whose mother ran a government agency meant to defend against Hell. Worth the Candle - A webcomic adaptation of the web serial

Non-Fiction

The AI Art Apocalypse - Slightly outdated thoughts from 2022. Why to Write a Sex Scene - Observations on the narrative purpose of carnal pursuits. Game Review: Underhill - This review contains no screenshots, because this game does not exist. Writing: An FAQ - Accumulated wisdom from 4 million words and counting. Creating Interesting Magic - A much-requested post on making interesting magic systems (and characters, and plots, and worlds). How to Write a Web Serial - It's both easier and harder than you think. The Trouble with Writing Nazis - On giving villains too much credit. Interesting Things to do with Time Loops - Exploring the boundaries of the conceit.

[amikaelsonstory]

Not the end, but a new beginning - I

Chapter one.

“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” Lev Tostoy, Anna Karenina

As the brothers stood up, eyes full of tears, racing hearts with fear and gratitude, a breathless, loud scream cut the silent moment

- "DAD DON'T!! WE FOUND A WAY, STOP!"

Hope was running fast followed by Freya, hugged Klaus back, almost following on her knees, gasping with tears running down her face.

Klaus and Elijah turned fast, lowering their pieces of white oak daggers as they approached.

- " What do you mean, darling? I need to go, please understand"   Klaus whispered, lifting Hope face up, whipping tears from his daughter's face.

 Elijah remained speechless, his lips slightly parted in surprise, as Freya reached out and hugged him tightly, making him close his eyes and take a deep breath in some sort of relief.

- It's true brother, I found a way, the Old Gods... they finally gave me an answer. I will explain everything, but please, let's go home"

As they found their way into the compound, Rebekah, Marcel and Kol stood apprehensively up from their seats, relieved to see the girls were able to reach them on time to avoid the tragedy. 

- It seems it's not gonna be tonight you're gonna get rid of the almighty Klaus Mikaelson!  Klaus orotund, opening his arms with his crooked smile, trying to mask his remaining fears and doubts.

- Nik! Rebekah cheered running to hug her brother tightly, while Marcel and Kol tapped his shoulders, welcoming him and Elijah back.

- Let me show you what I found out.  - Freya commanded, guiding the family to follow her to the study room. 

The room was dark, as they entered and approach the table Freya showed them. It had some runes symbols written in blood on a old manuscript, a dead white bird, some herbs and a pendulum spinning fast over a bowl on fire. The air around was thick, heavy, with a slight purple mist around them.  

- Since this whole thing started I've been searching for a way to overcome the hollow power, it had to have another way, she is not the biggest power in the universe. Freya pleaded. "So I had no choice but to reach the Old Gods, from motherland, where our family comes from"

- Norway? - Elijah whispered, lifting his eyes from the runes to meet Freya's, who slowly nodded. She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath before opening them again.

- Odin heard my prayer but the spell hasn't been fully revealed yet. For now I can suppress the hollow effects in Klaus, but until the full moon we must find The Undead whose sunlight cannot harm. 

- A vampire that doesn't burn in the sun? With no magic, no ring? Kol bawled in disbelief, crossing his arms against his chest - That should be easy - he taunted ironically.

- It doesn't matter, we will find it - Rebekah assured, touching Marcel's shoulder - Can you ask your people to track it and bring it to us?

I'm on it, I'm gonna make some calls and my guys will bring it to us. - Marcel stated, picking up his phone and walking out of the room - Dead or alive, or it doesn't matter?

- ALIVE - Freya's voice sounded louder than she expected - Please, we still don't know what we will need to do next, for now, you can go rest. Klaus you stay, I need to make the ritual to hold the hollow until the next full moon.

___________________________________________________________

As the days passed, the Mikaleson's basically turned the whole vampire world upside down, reaching all the possible sources in order to find this so-called "sunlight proof vampire", but they were running out of time and all they had was a whole bunch of nothing. 

Okay, not nothing. They knew there was a woman, but nothing sounded like the real deal, more like gossip if much.

Elijah, Klaus and Hope were at the study room, digging deep into all they could find.

- Alright, I managed to filter all we have, names, places, stories and got into 3 possible names. - Hope shared with them, without taking her eyes out of her laptop screen. - Natalya Fyodorova, a ballerina from Bolshoi ballet, last seen circa 1970, in Moscow. Sister Ionescu, the oldest register, seen in Romania in the beginning of 20th century and - she folded her index fingers quoting- the most "recently" - we got Minna Murray, 2007, UK. No job, no city info, just a name.

Klaus paced side by side in the room, placing his hands on his hips, looking down as he was hearing his daughter.

- Most likely it's the same person - he paused - But how do we find this bloody woman? It's not possible that nobody knows her whereabouts!!  - Klaus exploded while pouring himself a glass of bourbon 

Elijah placed his papers down on the desk, paying attention to the names Hope said. His eyes wandered away, frowning his eyebrows.  - Niklaus... weren't we in Moscow in 72?

But before Klaus could answer, Freya stormed into the room.

 - We have visitors, they found something.

[di-42]

June's joyful fictions

I can't believe June is over and I've managed to read so few fictions, what with work and trying to focus on writing my own. Few, but really, really good! Here they are! As usual tagging the writers whose tumblr username I know. Spread the love!

WIPs:

The Last Angel by @bellisima-writes.

Amazing canon divergent fiction where Crowley and Aziraphale were never assigned to earth, armageddon happened and hell won the war. There are ok fictions, there are good fictions, there are excellent fictions, and there are those fiction where you simply can't believe this is not the author's actual job. Like, they do something else in life, as a day job? And then have the audacity to write like this? This story is great, the world the writer creates is incredibly believable, the characterisation is spot on, but that's not all. You read and you want more and you want to be in on it, and you can't wait to know. You won't regret reading this story. Rated E and updated every Wednesday.

Complete stories:

My Heart Was Always Yours by @addledmongoose.

Another incredible work by one of my favourite fiction writers. I was so impatient for Fridays to come so I could lose myself in the two new chapters of this fiction and I'm going to miss the Crowley and Aziraphale in this story so, so much. Canon divergent universe where Aziraphale and Crowley don't meet until present day. Each of them thinks the other is human and each of them wants to prevent the apocalypse. The plot of this story is incredible and moves at a fast pace, but the main characters are the real treat. Their chemistry is incredibly well written, the humour and wit are spot on and you will fall in love with them. Rated M.

On The Same Page by Chekhov.

Thank you so much @dashuntsel for recommending this great fiction! It's a human AU where Aziraphale and Crowley are both writers. Aziraphale writes Christian books, Crowley writes adult books and they help each other out with their writing. Until they have to pretend to be married. This was such a good read, I really couldn't put it down. It's almost exclusively narrated in Aziraphale's POV but the mutual pining is evident and the build up to them resolving their issues is so bittersweet and deep and just lovely. There is a happy ending, don't worry. And the side story will really... aargghh, I won't spoil it for you, just read it. Rated E.

Series:

Whickber Street Traders And Shopkeepers Association Daily Observations by @waitingtobebroken

This series was incredibly funny and entertaining! The shopkeepers of Whickber street come up when their theories about the mysterious friend of the bookseller. Each story of the series is told from one of the shopkeepers' POV. The last story is Crowley setting the records straight and it only makes sense if read last, but the order you read the others doesn't matter. The last story is also the one dearest to my heart in the whole series. Prepare to fall in love with Mutt.

One shot:

Far Too Much In Love To See by imperiousphasmid

Oh, the fluff and the sweetness of the fiction! Just what I needed! Crowley and Aziraphale live happily as a couple in the South Downs, but sometimes go to the bookshop for a day. Every time they go the same customer visits the bookshop. Jealous Aziraphale is simply adorable. Rated teen and up.

Hope you enjoy these wonderful stories as much as I did!

[skylermadness]

Welcome to the Rider Side (Iskandar TF)

(Original Date of Upload: July 8, 2023)

Original Description:

I was going to upload this yesterday but forgot to. I know next to nothing about the Fate series, and honestly it seems like it has too many pieces to put together to really be able to get into it safely. Nonetheless, I wrote this while I was bored one set of days and in the mood for Iskandar, who is honestly my only Fate-related mood. What can I say, I like fiery redheads. I tend not to deal with lack of MC in works but I wanted to try something unique and different. Same with the goo trigger here, although I've done quite a few goo triggers so that doesn't really count. Either way, this was a fun story to write and a nice diversion from the usual that I work on! Rated Mature for bulge and implied masturbation.

   Cosplay was an unfamiliar endeavor for Rufus, to say the least. This was both in terms of how it functions and how expensive such a thing can be. But with a convention coming up in his hometown, Rufus had been rather antsy in regards to doing it. It was something new, it was something interesting! He's never tried something like this before, and that only fueled the desire to jump the shark and attempt something like cosplaying. No matter how complicated it may be!

   …then again, that doesn't really bar the fact that he chose what may have been the most complex character possible to try such a thing with, and that was the character Iskandar from the Fate series.

   There were quite a few reasons why such a choice was absurd. First was the fact that he chose a character that was predominantly armored. Second was that he chose a character whose armor pieces were… unique to say the least. So much so that the only way to procure them would be through custom means. And with there being only a month until the convention. But he also really liked the character, so much so that he was willing to do everything in his power to attempt to do this… right?

   Rufus sighed, his foot pressing on the brake of his car as he drove up to an intersection. Eyes lingered for a couple seconds, keeping track of the intersection before his vision drifted to the block ahead. He caught sight of a small building, wooden in material in contrast to the predominantly concrete, stone, and brick of the buildings surrounding it. The sight caused him to perk up a bit.

   He was lucky for a single thing, and that was locating a replica of Iskandar's blade. One that ran for a cheap price. It did have to be procured locally, but that was fine since the store was near his apartment.

   Once past the intersection he drove for a couple more seconds before pulling over to the side in front of the building. Doing all the usual procedures he left his car and locked it before turning to look at the building itself, evidently being a small store judging by the shelves that were noticeably visible through the window. His sight trailed upwards for a moment, catching the store's name that was displayed atop it. 

   Maurice's Exceptional Cosplay Collectibles…

   Although only the name Maurice seemed to be written properly. Everything else after it was rather crude in writing, alongside being written above something that was scribbled out. Peculiar, but not the most worrying thing. Probably a rebrand when this store took over whatever the previous one was.

   Finishing up his gawking, Rufus finally took the plunge and stepped into the store. A small bell rang above him as he stepped through the door, his arrival being signaled throughout the almost shack-like shop. Although the only acknowledgement of his existence after that was from who he presumed to be the manager, a rotund man with a thick beard and a balding head. The store's titular Maurice, Rufus had presumed.

   "'ey. Ruf's, right?" the man said, his voice deep and gravelly. 

   With a nod Rufus responded with an, "Er, yeah."

   He wasn't surprised that the storekeeper was anticipating his arrival. The site where Rufus found the replica sword just happened to have a section for item reservations. 

   Maurice nodded, then bent down to rummage beneath the counter. After a couple seconds he arose with a rather long and thin box in hand and set it upon the counter. "Take a look-see," he said with a smile. "Rather impress'ly designed!"

   Curious, Rufus stepped up to the counter and opened the box. The object within it was wrapped in red cloth, which he undid in order to look at the object itself. His eyes then widened in surprise. "It's made of metal…?"

   "Yup! An authentic sword ya' gettin' 'ere!"

   Authentic felt like an understatement. Rufus was expecting some plastic mock-up, but this appeared to be a legitimate spatha-type sword. Metallic blade, equally metallic handle and pommel. And yet it had all the makings of Iskandar's blade. Golden emblem on the cross-guard, a lion's head at the pommel's end. 

   "Did… did you make this or something…?" he asked, dumbfounded.

   "Eh, ya could say that."

   And all of this for twenty dollars. It felt practically farcical to him. "Is this like some kind of rental thing, or…?"

   "Nah. We jus' get a lot're items than we know what t' do with."

   Rufus opened his mouth to respond, but was unable to think of one.

   "'s a good sword though. Heard it's owner was quite the beaut as well!"

   "I uh, yeah…" he responded, unsure how to take all of this. This experience was getting more surreal by the second. "I'll just make my payment and be on my way then," Rufus said, beginning to fish out his wallet.

   His eyes still lingered on the spatha. There was something that felt off, but he just couldn't pinpoint it yet…

                                        ----------------------------------------------------------

   It's been roughly ten minutes now since Rufus had arrived back to his apartment. He was originally planning on making himself some lunch before resuming his plans to find a suitable way to complete his cosplay, but those plans were thrown out the window rather quickly.

   He sits on the couch, and in front of him is a small table. The sword is splayed atop the table's glass counter, the box it came in disregarding to the side with the cloth it was wrapped in laying beneath it. The man was still awestruck at the realism of the object. He was half convinced that if he poked the tip he'd accidentally cut himself and draw blood. 

   Reaching out a hand he hesitantly grasped the dark blue grip of the blade and picked it up. With both hands he held the blade up to his face as if he were inspecting it. The object was rather lightweight which made picking it up not very challenging. The only real concern was his lack of knowledge when it came to sword etiquette. How do you hold it? Do you have to clean it or something? Where do you even put it once you're finished with it?? 

   "Oh, what will I do with you…" Rufus questioned the blade, not expecting much of an answer. 

   He had slowly come to the realization that there was a small issue now in regards to having such a realistic object. It would likely not work well together with whatever other pieces of the cosplay he'd scope out. He'd have a set of faux armor and whatnot and be wielding some hyperrealistic blade that could probably get him arrested. And it definitely wouldn't fit with the cheaper option of going for a more casual fit.

   He sighed, beginning to mutter to himself. "I did not think this thought much, did I?" There was also a very vocal thought in the forefront of his mind: he really wanted an easier way to complete this cosplay.

   His peripherals then caught onto a glowing below him. Turning his head downwards his gaze caught onto the golden emblem within the middle of the sword's cross-guard. The emblem was looking to be glowing brightly now. "Wha…?"

   He didn't have much time to process it though. He was suddenly startled as a strange fluid-like substance poured down from the emblem and onto his hands, which had then prompted Rufus to panic for a moment and let go of the blade. Luckily, it only fell beside his feet and stabbed into the rug.

   Rufus didn't think much of it though. He was preoccupied, looking down to inspect his hands. Gobs of reddish-brown goo of some kind had found their way onto his hands somehow, flecks of it slowly moving up and towards his arms. "Uhhhh-"

   That wasn't the only weird occurrence either. Rufus felt the fingers of both hands twitching just ever so slightly, this feeling being accompanied by a far stranger sight. A thickness was entering the man's hands, fingers steadily growing larger and denser. His hands were increasing in size as well with both of them appearing to stretch out larger, bulkier. Palms were looking to be swelling and gaining a meatiness to them, and the increase in size to both parts of his body just looked like they had at the very least less than doubled in size.

   The mysterious goo continued to progress its way up and around Rufus' arms. The young man could only watch in a mix of awe and confusion, unable to articulate his feelings. A massive chunk of it was encapsulating his wrists, lengthening further upwards to fully wrap around his forearms. It felt as if the region was being encased in a rubber-like substance, and ementating from that substance was an odd feeling of warmth that coursed through the veins of his lower arms. Much like his hands, the size of both forearms was steadily growing. However, this time it appeared they were accruing muscle mass. The softness that they had originally possessed was being sloughed away and replaced by hard, beefy, and warm muscle. It had even come with a surge of strength that was only progressing further into his body.

   While the rubbery cuffs remained on his forearms, strands and gobs of goo broke from it and trickled up his arms more. This didn't seem to lessen the mass of the arm cuffs, as if all laws of physics did not apply to this substance. As the strands of strange substance inches across his upper arms, the surge of power coursing through himself was moving into the region as well. Thick muscle was packing into the area, arms hardening with it as it formed quickly. Biceps bulged out of them while triceps transformed and matured rapidly. All the softness his arms originally possessed was getting erased, melting away into a firm new form. Heat had filled his arms as they were granted an instant workout, and he could feel the short sleeves of his t-shirt attempt to stretch over his thickening appendages while the goo began moving beneath them and towards his torso. The fabric got filled with creases as his muscles pushed up against them, the thick crevices that divided his newfound musculature  practically etching into the gray cotton. This only got more prominent as his shoulder muscles started to change and his deltoids expanded, the overall region broadening as things were moving up and past his arms.

   With his shoulders bulking out, Rufus could feel his form start to widen out while his skin was stimulated by the rubbery texture of the goo. It was practically phantasmagorical as to how this all felt. Unrealistic, bizarre. He couldn't help but take a moment to snap out his daze and curiously paw at the cuffs encapsulating his forearms. The liquid consistency seemed to have hardened, the marbled reddish-brown having become some kind of long latex-like 'wrist'band that even with his newfound strength he'd be unable to pull off. But then again, this substance was somehow making him muscular…

   He stopped pulling at the cuffs, instead raising an arm up and giving it a good flex. The act as a whole caused the associated sleeve to split across his bicep, unable to contain the now muscled limb. "Woah…" he vocalized in awe. He would be lying if he said he didn't like this feeling of power that was steadily coursing through his entire being.

   Concern was fading into curiosity. He moved his attention downwards, eyes staring at his torso as he felt the transformative substance travel from the left and right sides of his body. It was steadily moving towards the middle of his body, and as it did so it was only inciting more changes. He could feel his very core heat up like some kind of furnace, an almost exponentially enhancing sense of might emanating within his chest.

   Rufus had possessed a rather pudgy build. Soft, fatty, some would even call it a little schlubby. But something, or rather everything about that, was changing. As the goo moved across his chest towards the middle of his body, a firmness was entering the area rather rapidly. The softness of his pecs was hardening, getting packed with powerful muscles. His shirt steadily filled out as his musculature was increased, pectorals pushing forward more and more as they grew and expanded. He was garnering two massive slabs of raw meat on his chest. It was getting so prominent that the newly developing cleavage was indenting into his shirt's fabric. 

   Beneath his shirt the substance that was infusing him with this power continued its coverage of his form. Once it converged beneath the middle of his chest it began to expand outwards again. A portion of it arose, rubber-like goo steadily raising to cup Rufus' thick pecs. A sizable portion in the middle remained visible however, the goo seeming to avoid covering his cleavage. It would eventually rise until it nestled beneath the man's collarbone, which itself still seemed to be widening out. Between the goo and his broadening size, Rufus' t-shirt was just struggling to contain his massive form. And it was evident his form was only going to become even larger.

   The marbled browns and reds of the supposed fluid had also been making its way downwards, the territory it was claiming around his abdominal region being a lot larger than it was on his chest. It has first stretched over his belly, a soft squeezing ensuing as it did so. The fat within his belly was being pressed down into his body, being flattened and molded into a more muscular form instead. Abdominal muscles were being pressed out of his gut, bubbling forward as three rows were being forced to materialize into a six-pack of abs.

   His sides were increasing with heat as his obliques rippled, the lower half of Rufus' torso continuing to get pressurized as the goo started to surround it now. A burning strength being filled in the region, power pushing forward throughout the form as new muscles continued to get molded into him from the mysterious substance. It wasn't long until it went into his back as well, the goo entering the region and closing in on his spinal cord. As it did so, wide portions of goo were beginning to extend from the top of the chest portion of this weird rubbery chest plate of his. It stretched out, snaking over his shoulders and moving onto his upper back. Both segments of substance would meet at the midline, in between his trapeziuses, and then run downwards in a single thick line to converge with the portion of gooey plating that surrounded his lower body. All the while his spine was being massaged by the substance, another soft warmth emanating across his back as inches were now being added to the young man's height.

   The changes in height were getting slightly evident now as Rufus caught onto his shirt riding up his now muscular abdomen. His six-pack was just etched into the gray fabric perfectly, and the shirt's hem was steadily moving towards said six-pack. But he was quickly growing more preoccupied with his chest. His thick pectorals. He couldn't help but slowly bring up a hand and poke a chunky finger into his cleavage. Although the very act of moving a limb seemed to be taboo to the shirt at this point, rips echoing from behind him as his back and shoulder muscles were moved. And somehow this initiated a chain reaction as tears formed down the sides of the tee, and a few finally formed within the front. One especially noticeable rip was right over his pecs, giving Rufus a clear view of the rubber chestplate and the middle of his pecs.

   "Hooh…" he felt warm at that. Everything about this was warming but that very sight moreso. So, so much strength is piled onto him. It was so immense, so powerful. He just couldn't resist going from poking to groping as he cupped a pec with a hand. It was so… stimulating feeling that rubber press up against his flesh, and he could still feel the slight softness that his pectorals possessed. The feeling just made his blood pump faster than before, so much faster.

   He was… enjoying this, wasn't he?

   His thoughts were then broken as he heard another portion of his clothing break, this time with his legwear. Looking down he saw that the button holding his jeans together had snapped open, and in general his jeans were starting to feel tighter. But the tightness in his jeans was the least of his problems as… so much began happening at once.

   The goo had already moved well past the waistline, now beginning to encapsulate Rufus' pelvis and the area beneath that. It was perhaps the most sensual part of the entire change as he could feel the substance squeeze up against his more sensitive areas. He couldn't help but stand up from the couch now, the man feeling a considerable heat erupting in his rear as the region was consumed by the gooey substance. The area was getting so much thicker, becoming round and plump as his glute muscles became even larger. And with his waist already getting wider, this addition to size caused the seat of his pants to just split open, that very sound causing Rufus to moan a bit as his cheeks flushed with red.

   Then he felt his groin stir, and his cheeks flushed even redder.

   A massive hand was moving down to the area as Rufus started to feel an immense, almost erotic emotion well up in him. Sweat was beading on his forehead while he looked down, the zipper of his pants splitting open more and more as he saw his undergarments bulge out more with each passing second. All the while the rubber was stimulating every nerve within his growing groin. Blood was practically shooting down there as he couldn't help but hover his hand above the area for a moment before cupping it. "O-ohhh…" he moaned out again, his voice sounding a bit deeper, but his brain was swimming in erotic ecstasy to care.

   With all this pleasure overtaking Rufus' mind, he was too preoccupied to take full notice of more changes, now continuing to press further down his legs. His thighs were practically burning with heat as they were encapsulated with brownish-red goo, hamstrings and quads being packed with substantial muscle much like his arms were minutes prior. Tears echoed through the air as the stitching on the sides of his jeans was being split open by his thickening legs, and the denim in general was getting creased with his new musculature engraving into it. 

   The goo seemed to end halfway down his thighs however, globs of it instead trickling downwards as it moved past his knees as onto the crus of his legs. Once it reached the mentioned region, it went back to expanding in surface area. Although this time it seemed to be doing so like it did his forearms; circling around his lower legs to form one large rubber bracer. This was especially noticeable with the bottoms of his jeans running up his legs, his height growing yet again with another set of inches being placed into his legs. And while it did so, his calves steadily ballooned, now being grown out into massive bulging muscles that continued to vy for his legwear's attention and rip them up further with each passing moment.

   As Rufus continued rubbing his bulge, he widened his stance a bit. The substance had also finally run beneath his footwear, now having reached the man's feet. The tongue's of his shoes were pressed up as the rubbery material cascaded down the bridge of both feet, the size of his feet seemingly getting stimulated by this and beginning to grow. His footwear was quick in becoming undersized; his heels practically dug into the backs of each shoe while the sides pressed the cloth that was containing them outwards more and more. The toecap of the shoe was beginning to bulge as his toes pressed up against it, the side of the bulging growing even more prominent as his toes got thicker. The overall meatiness of his feet was just increasing rapidly, and it wasn't long until his shoes finally began splitting apart to reveal them. And while his feet grew, the rest of the rubbery goo completed what it set out to do. A small bit of it slipped in between his big toe and the adjacent one before running beneath the soles of his feet. It was at this point that his original footwear finally just burst open.

   Rufus shuddered a bit, hesitantly unclasping his bulge as he let out a rather deep sigh. All of his senses steadily came back to him as the ecstasy slowly wore off. 

   He swallowed a forming lump in his throat, the man feeling his neck thicken in size. "I-I should probably leave that for…"

   His sentence trailed off as he caught note of his voice, realizing the deepness crawling into it with each passing word. It was sounding so commanding, so boisterous! And familiar as well…

   "Woah- I sound exactly like…" his eyes trailed back downwards. The way the rubber had plated his body, especially his torso, was also… "Iskandar…"

   With that very realization, a large grin formed on the man's face. That sword, it was making him a splitting image of its wielder? How was that possible? Why was it possible? Did that weird storekeeper know or-

   "O-ough, itchy…" Rufus' thoughts broke as he felt an itchiness on his face. No doubt a sign of the final physical changes to his body finally ensuing.

   He raised up a hand and casually scratched at the itching, the feeling mainly isolated around his chin. He had already possessed a bit of a beard around the region, but the brown coloration of it was noticeably changing. Starting at the roots, a soft red was steadily expanding across his beard. Alongside that the thickness of it was increasing, the hairs growing thicker and more connected as the visible style of his facial hair looked almost spiky. This look was only exacerbated as a spiky-like stylization was forming from where the hairs met his face. And his beard only moved further to perfection, a well-kempt lustrousness entering into the very hairs. More and more red continued to consume the follicles, dull brown becoming brighter and brighter by the second. The ends of the beard moved up the sides of his jaw to meet his sideburns, and from there the bright red was starting to enter his hair.

   While his beard changed his face was altering at the exact same time. A broadness entered his jawline, chiseled it out more as the softness of his face was getting hardened. His facial structure was being altered, skull shape shifting due to the roundness of it was being lost, becoming a bit more square with the steady widening of it all. The youthful look his young adult face had was also fading, bits of age setting into it with wrinkles etching around his eyes. Although perhaps the most prominent changes occurred within his facial features; his slight mustache sinking into his skin, his eyes getting slightly larger while the irises gained a bright red coloration to them, and his ears pushed out slightly. There was also a change in his nose, it getting larger and the bridge getting wider in size as the broadness of his nose seemed to become an almost defining feature of his face. Lastly were his eyebrows, getting bushier while the bright red coloration formed within them as they did so.

   The final bits of changes came to the rest of his hair. As the flaming red swept across his, the overall style was being altered drastically. While it had originally possessed an almost medium length to it, that length was shortening rather rapidly. This was further proven by his forehead getting more visible as the part of hair flipped over was shrinking into his scalp. After a few seconds it also seemed the way his hair was directed was altering, the centralization of it all being swept back and changed to all of his hair being pushed backwards. A wild, untameness was forming within it as well with bits and pieces spiking out as if the hair were actually lit aflame. Despite it all, with the shortening concluding, his hair had garnered a noticeable denseness to it that it didn't possess in its prior state.

   With that all the strange warmths and newfound power surges started to die down, as if Rufus' body was already getting used to it. A sign that the physical changes seemed to have concluded. Although Rufus felt a bit too preoccupied scratching his beard. Not because it was still itching though, it just felt nice to run his fingers through the dense hairs. "Ooh, that feels good…"

   All of this felt good actually. This thick musculature, this masculine physique. Hearing his deep voice resonate through his ears, just feeling his own strong presence within the room. It was exhilarating! Although his scritching slowly came to a halt as he realized something. His head turned back downwards, eyeing the strange rubbery substance that still clinged to his body. 

   "Are you gonna melt off or something…?" he muttered. He wasn't sure what it had left to change. But after a couple seconds a change in texture drew his attention to his arm. Why did he feel something furry? Wait…

   His eyes now laying upon it, Rufus found that the rubber cuff that encapsulated his forearm was shifting. The top and bottom ends were fluffing up with a soft, white, and dense furry fringe. Meanwhile the material of the rubber itself was shifting to a cold and hard metal that he could feel graze his skin. The featurelessness was lost as crescent-like and ellipsoid shapes formed within the back of the newly changed metal.

   It wasn't the only part that was changing either. His already filled out shirt seemed to fill out more, tears further splitting it as the rubber that divided the fabric from his skin got bulkier. Metal spread amongst the mysterious substance's entirety, the reddish-brown marbling changing to a pure brown while a soft golden coloration formed to outline where his pectorals and abs were. A bronze chestplate seemed to be what it was becoming. Meanwhile the Y-shaped segment of goo that stretched across his back changed to a separate more flexible material that made it more like a set of straps, those straps held together by a triangular buckle on the middle of his back.

   It was at this point that the remainder of his shirt seemed about ready to tear off, much of it seeming to almost burn itself away. But a portion of it around his shoulders and back remained, shifting into something drastically different. A thick white fur emerged from the collar, growing thicker and thicker by the second, while the back portion of the shirt extended and turned from gray to bright red. The furriness of the collar continued to thicken, and a golden design was arising from the bottom of the lengthening back. It wasn't long until the former shirt was the densely furred caped mantle that sat upon Iskandar's shoulders, held there by a single blue leather strap around his chest.

   At the same time, the rubber that was around his thighs shifted to a deep blue, hardening into some kind of short legged under armor. But his jeans still seemed to fill out, a separate layer of fabric seeming to emerge from under the materializing belt that was beneath the first layer of legwear's waistline. This layer of fabric continued to push itself downwards, reds and golds noticeable through the tears in the denim of his jeans. It wasn't long until his former legwear would follow in what his shirt did by mimicking a fire starting and blazing itself away while segments of it were changing, hardening to a bronze like his chestplate possessed. It seemed his jeans were becoming a set of lengthy tassets that stretched down to the length of his knees. All while a golden buckle appeared in front of them, clasped onto Rufus' waist, and manifested a triad of blue straps that snaked around his waist. A sizable weight formed within one of these straps, a scabbard for the very trigger of his transformation appearing from mere nothing.

   The last portion of rubber was on the crus of his legs and his feet. Like the segment around his forearms, fringes of fur grew from the top and bottom portions of the greaves while the rubberiness was hardened to metal. A layered metallicness was also formed within the substance that has covered the bridge of his foot. Meanwhile the portions that had gone between his toes and under his feet became a more leathery consistency instead, his new pair of footwear seeming to be rather sandal-like. 

   Rufus ran a hand above the flat bronze of his chestplate, a sense of finally dawning on the transformed man. This was real armor that had finally graced the man's skin. Authentic, perfect. He could feel every chunk of metal, every bit of fur, even the fabric of his cape grazing the back of his legs.

   His eyes then laid on the sword, the catalyst to this all, currently stabbed in the rug of his apartment. He effortlessly picked the object up, Rufus reveling in hearing the soft shing of the weapon reverberate through his ears as he placed it into his scabbard. 

   "I guess you did give me the perfect cosplay that'd fit you, huh?" Rufus said while patting the scabbard. He then followed the statement up with a deep laugh, letting himself just swim in the pure boisterousness that this form exuded. It just felt so good.

   Quieting down a bit, his gaze then trailed to his arm. Casually raising it, Rufus gave the arm a good flex! Feeling all that raw strength and power coarse through his veins.

   "I am definitely ready for that convention now!~"

[thehauntingofbeasts]

what inspired these hymns? :0

Excellent question, and one I've thought about a lot!

The whole concept took some inspiration from my personal experiences in fiction-based spirituality spaces, and from my time in a cult, where the worst parts of being in said cult were wrapped up in the 'weird but harmless' things that I didn't feel like I could discuss without mockery.

From there, I also thought a bit about how people treat situations like the Snapewives, which I'll admit did have some bearing on things. I felt like we didn't really have stories on the internet that showed a sympathetic side to situations like the Snapewives, that really captured how intertwined a lot of fiction-based spirituality gets with real-world identity.

I did also want to write a sequel/spinoff to my /r/nosleep series, Hotel For The Spirits, for a while — there were a lot of elements from that series that I felt I could have done better on or interrogated in retrospect, having written it when I was still in high school.

So that was what caused me to form the initial idea of making These Hymns, which was bolstered by needing to have a final project for my Digital Culture course I was taking in my last semester of undergraduate college. Ergo, this project came into existence, having a short version that I sent in as my final project and a longer version that's the one we can read online.

Generally speaking, I took a lot of inspiration from existing pieces of online series discussing the internet in making These Hymns Aren't For The Holy.

A few that come to mind right now in the genre:

The Northern Caves by @nostalgebraist absolutely blew my mind with the way it managed to capture the outer edges of a book series that didn't exist in the most delightfully House of Leaves-ian way while still managing to tell a coherent and striking interpersonal narrative between the different forum users. Definitely inspired me to go a bit hog-wild with making fictional media for These Hymns.

What Happens Next (will shock you) by @maximumgraves, a brilliant dark comedy webcomic that has never, ever left my head since I read it. It's a chilling tale that does cover a lot of very unlikeable, very online people while still making them sympathetic in their own ways. I truly think it's one of the best works of fiction at capturing the modern era of the internet and how wacky it's become, and deserves your attention. One of the characters, Milo, was definitely in my head while plotting the characterization of quietCrocodile, the main narrator of These Hymns.

Unauthorized Fan Treatise by Lauren James: Quite frankly, if you ever want to write a web-based story about the internet, this should be at the top of your list. This was the story that made me realize that projects like this were possible, and the edited multi-media approach it took impressed me deeply. Absolutely mindblowing how well it captures shipping culture in fandoms and how it goes wrong, tbh.

I was also very strongly inspired by Umineko: When They Cry, which I was in the middle of reading when actively plotting These Hymns Aren't For The Holy. Specifically, I was thinking of Episode 1 of Umineko, where one of the pivotal characters (Beatrice) isn't fully in the narrative yet but looms over it, haunting the narrative, influencing everyone's behavior — while another character (Battler) denies her existence. This back and forth of 'is it real, is it not?' influenced a lot about how I wrote Conway/the Corrupter Without Morals (the god that the Haunting Beasts worship) in These Hymns Aren't For The Holy, the specific way he's not present and yet /omnipresent/.

And then, of course, no mention of my inspirations is complete without namedropping the works of Sealtoast, creator of Recollect: Records of the Other Side, whose characters and stories inspired the creation of the Corrupter Without Morals/Conway in the first place. :3c

Hopefully this helps!

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen says 'it fills my heart' in passionate message about Wales that will give you goosebumps

Michael Sheen has been reflecting on what it is he loves about Wales ahead of his debut as Aneurin Bevan in new stage drama Nye - and his passionate message is enough to give you goosebumps.

Speaking to WalesOnline ahead of the play’s Cardiff run, Sheen opened up about why he keeps coming back to Wales and indeed now lives here again, even though his work takes him all over the world. “It’s my home,” he says. “It's where my family are, where my friends are, where I grew up. It's the country whose history is closest to my heart, whose people I care about the most, the communities that I care about the most. It is what shaped me, informed me, and what continues to shape and form me.

“Aside from anything to do with the natural beauty of the country, the warmth of the people, the history of the communities, how we grew up here, the challenges that we've had in the past and that we still face and that have shaped who we are now and why we are the way we are now and what our aspirations are, all of those things. [Wales is] what fills my head and fills my heart.”

The Newport-born, Port Talbot raised actor is recognised for his ability to transform into his characters, notably real life people like former Prime Minister Tony Blair, broadcaster David Frost, and controversial football manager Brian Clough.

Sheen, 55, who has more recently played Chris Tarrant in ITV drama Quiz and the angel Aziraphale in Good Omens opposite David Tennant, is now looking forward to starring in the title role of Nye, a co-production between the Wales Millennium Centre and the National Theatre, which sees the actor portray the founder of the National Health Service.

Interestingly, Nye will be the first time that Sheen performs on stage in his home country. Despite his groundbreaking performance as Jesus Christ in National Theatre Wales' The Passion which was staged on location across Port Talbot during Easter weekend in 2011, the actor revealed he's never actually fronted a show at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

“To be able to do this play and tell this story about this man on that stage is really exciting,” Sheen commented. “When we got there to start doing the tech and just stepped out onto the stage, it was really exciting. You could feel the whole company getting really excited and just looking out into that beautiful auditorium and just thinking about it being full of people coming to watch this play.

“The fact that we're telling this story, which is such a Welsh story about a Welsh legend, has been exciting from the very beginning. When we first started rehearsing, knowing that we'd be coming to Wales at the end of it, everyone was incredibly excited about that. To now actually be here and be just days away from starting the performance is quite thrilling.”

Sheen said that, perhaps for the first time in his career, he knew ‘everything’ about the man he was playing. A new play written by Tim Price, a synopsis for Nye reads: “Confronted with death, Nye's deepest memories lead him on a mind-bending journey back through his life; from childhood to mining underground, parliament and fights with Churchill in an epic Welsh fantasia.”

Sheen said of playing Bevan: “In the last 10 years I've come to really appreciate who [Aneurin Bevan] was and what he did and what he achieved. This was an opportunity to be able to put everything I knew and felt about him into a piece on stage.

“It’s a very particular challenge playing a real person who is very well known by the audience. That brings all kinds of unique challenges that you wouldn't normally get if you're playing a fictional character, obviously, or a real life person that people don't really know that well. And with playing Nye as well, it feels like a huge responsibility. I mean, it's a privilege to play him and to tell his story, but it's also a massive responsibility because there have been very few things out there about him, and it's such an important story.

“I already had such a strong feeling about him, a strong relationship to him and what he achieved. I know people who feel incredibly passionate about him and what he did. That brings an even greater level of responsibility to it. It was a great relief to know that once we started performing the play, people were accepting of me playing the part and were enjoying it and felt that it portrayed Bevan in a way that did him justice.”

Sheen added that the NHS itself has “always” been there for him throughout his life, citing moments in which he has lost family members and friends, as well as caring for his two children with Swedish actress partner Anna Lundberg, Lyra and Mabli. “It's not just one moment, it's a lifetime, lifelong relationship.”

Another relationship that Sheen has developed in recent years is with Doctor Who star David Tennant. The pair have been firm friends since appearing in both Staged and Good Omens with each other – both of which were hugely successful. Of his friendship with Tennant, Sheen jokes: “David and I will keep working together as long as we don't fall out!” While he ruled out more episodes of Staged, Sheen will reunite with Tennant when the third and final series of Good Omens enters production next year. When asked whether he knows what the future holds for his character, the actor said: “I know what's going to happen in the entire story but I'm not going to tell anyone.”

Before then Sheen will take on another real life role, playing Prince Andrew in a new series about the infamous Newsnight interview the royal did with Emily Maitlis. The story was adapted into Netflix film Scoop earlier this year: “I thought Rufus was fantastic,” Sheen said of Rufus Sewell’s performance as Prince Andrew in Scoop. “I thought he was brilliant as Andrew, he was much better than me. He was more a supporting character in that though. Our story is about Prince Andrew and Emily, it's much more they are the lead characters. It's a different focus and requires a different approach to the character. I was having to look at, as I'm sure Rufus did, the interview in particular. When we were working on it I was listening and watching the interview multiple times a day, every day for months.”

Reflecting on playing the divisive member of the Royal Family, Sheen said: “The level of controversy in that story brings an extra layer as well. The fact that for whatever all our personal opinions might be about what did or didn't happen, or what he did or didn't do, we don't know for definite. There's been no actual court case. We don't know exactly what happened.

"That requires a real level of sensitivity in how you deal with the story, apart from anything else because of legalities and that stuff, but when I read the script I thought that was handled really well. I thought it was a very clever way of allowing the audience to have a satisfying dramatic experience, but still keeping a level of ambiguity, which I thought was done very well on the script. Playing that character was challenging in all kinds of ways, as it is with every real-life character, but I also had to make certain choices and decisions about what was going on for him in my version.”

2024 has already been a busy year for Sheen as a few months ago, his directing debut The Way was released on BBC One – to mixed reviews. Reflecting on the project, which was shot in Wales, he said: “It was quite extraordinary to be attacked by Conservative ministers in the press on the day that it came out, and then to have right-wing newspapers having a concerted plan to try and smear it.

"We didn't expect that just before it came out the news would come out from the steelworks. It was a huge shock and obviously affected the way people perceive the story of the drama. It was never intended to be a socio-documentary about what was going on at the steelworks. It was my first time directing something and to be able to tell that story and film it around south Wales with an amazing Welsh cast was such a brilliant experience.”

[troutfur]

I may at some point later make a fancy worlbuilding post but I have this idea at the front of my head RN and I need something to get my mind off work for a little bit so!

Based on the metaphysics of the universe as presented in OotS, with the idea that StarClan is memory incarnate and all, I've always thought it'd be fascinating to play with StarClan cats morphing to fit the majority perception of their memory from cats down below.

In my rewrite concept I play around with ocassionally this is already kind of a major theme explored, how the past can be distorted and wielded as a tool, for good and ill alike.

Firestar is only ever shown through the eyes of others, more often than not as an idealized already dead hero whose origins are swept under the rug best they can be. Mudclaw goes from being remembered as a villain to a figure of resistance against an unpopular leader to a full blown folk hero who manages to ascend after Onestar is no longer there to deny him a funeral. And if I go further I'm sure I'll find more places for it.

But I also like to think about in the smaller less grandiose ways as well. How the shifting memory of an individual as the people who knew them personally start to die and it's their stories that remain.

A warrior who enters StarClan at the peak of their youth, sustained by all the stories of his successes in their glory days slowly aging back up as the generation who tells those stories becomes outnumbered by the generation only ever knew him as the cool grandpa the apprentices didn't mind that much having to spend time taking care of.

Or the reverse, a cat who enters into StarClan with a body bearing the marks of a life lived to the very end slowly aging backwards until they're a spry young warrior, or even an apprentice, as their largely uneventful life fades from memory leaving only that one very memorable anecdote from the spring of their life.

The tragedy of an apprentice granted a warrior name while they were on their dying breath may be forgotten, or even deliberately written over, prompting them to age to young adulthood to when they would've gotten their warrior name.

A certain physical feature of a cat may become more prominent as their story gets told and retold and that particular feature becomes an iconic part of how they are remembered. (Yellowfang being canonically just utterly flea-ridden in the afterlife comes to mind particularly for this. It annoys the shit out of her how much the exaggeration has made it worse.)

Imagine entirely ficitious cats coming to existence in StarClan as the stories they were created for become confused for real tales. Or a StarClan warrior shifting to be more of a fairy tale archetype than a fully rounded person as they get flanderized by the transmission of their stories.

I just think it's a neat concept. Lots of ways to experiment with it.

[evelhak]

For the WIP...Bitchberg (lol) and Mr. Forrest and Cherry.

Good choices (I think. At least if you don't mind me getting wordy.). xD Also, you managed to pick the only two of my projects that are both based on stories originally made for stage, and they are also both detective stories/murder mysteries.

I wish I invented the name Bitchberg, but I actually didn't. It's a pretty unorthodox detective novel based on my ballet teacher's original script "Murder in Ballet Academy", for one of our ballets about two years ago. I was so taken by the characters, which a lot of us had a chance to largely create for ourselves, that I asked if she would be okay with me basing a novel on her concept, and she said go ahead! I wrote about a half of it, while I was working with a government grant last year, but I've been unable to continue, since I have other more pressing projects piling up.

In the ballet, we had humorously named characters, whose names would tell what you need to know about them, such as Gloria Bitchberg, Myra Follows, Kyra Obeys, Rosa van der Wall, Chloe Clever, Moira Poor and Faye d'Away. In my version, I turned these into nicknames, and Chloe Clever also became Chloe Cloudhead, because she had the only flattering name, and I needed them all to be the opposite. No one knows who started coming up with the names, but the oldest students and the teachers are known more as their nicknames than their real ones. The title character, Gloria Berg, known as Gloria Bitchberg, is the queen bee of the senior class of a fairytale-esque ballet school in the countryside. And yes, there's a murder, and circumstances lead the students to try to solve it. It may seem like it's a classic detective novel at first, but it's not. Unfortunately, I can't say more about that.

Like all my work, it's very focused on characters, dynamics and personal growth. Ballet school hierarchy, competition and friendship are important elements. My primary inspiration came from a need to reinterpret our comedic, purposefully one-dimensional characters, in more nuance, and while doing that, I also discovered angles to the crime that turned it from a joke to something more socially meaningful to discuss.

Here's a snippet I just quickly translated from the story:

Gloria was strange in that she didn't actually look like a dancer. Not the way some other people looked like their sport, no matter what they were wearing. In her jeans and sweater, Gloria seemed like a normal, though stylish, student, and at her best, she could have been mistaken for a model who just walked out of a photoshoot. Leotards and tights were just one more carefully chosen outfit on her. Sometimes, Gloria didn't even look like a dancer while she danced. Myra never would have said that out loud, of course, because she would not have been able to explain it in a way that didn't sound bad. But it wasn't. Maybe it was even a good thing. Gloria just looked like Gloria, even when she was dancing. Perhaps she escaped standards without breaking them, in a way that made her the paradox of Standard Academy. Maybe it was the very reason that Gloria was, in everyone's opinion, the student who had "it". Maybe, this was Gloria's "it". How, instead of reaching for an odorless, colourless standard, her every movement and expression seemed like an answer to the question of who Gloria Bitchberg was.

Mr. Forrest & Cherry is an episodic story based on my high school theatre diploma work "Case Casanova", which is the only play I've written. Style-wise, it's a very similar murder mystery comedy as the ballet mentioned above. The name is misleading though, it has nothing to do with the famous Casanova, I just wanted the rich guy who gets murdered in the beginning to sound funny and nonsensical, so I named him Hannibal Casanova.

The play came to be, when I didn't get to be in the musical Into The Woods, because I didn't have stage charisma. (Well, the director said I had "very sensitive presence" but I understood he was just trying to put my lack of emoting nicely. :D) Acting was something I wanted to try once, really badly, so after I had cried about my unfair fate for a day (lol it was veery dramatic for 17-year-old me), we formed a drama group with some of my friends, called ourselves Bush Mouflons, and had the best time. As the writer of the group, the story became my responsibility after we'd agreed on some basics. I went for comedically one-dimensional characters for this too, because I thought they would be the easiest to act for beginners, especially if I based them on a dominant trait each of us actually had, or had demonstrated was something they were naturally good at portraying.

And that's when I ran into the exact same problem again. Each of my friends had something about them that would draw attention on stage if amplified for their roles, and I didn't. The only thing I was known for was being calm or spaced out. Long story short, in my stubbornness I finally figured out that instead of continuing to hit my head against a wall trying to be something I wasn't, I could write myself a role where not drawing attention would serve the story. (Lol this is totally one of the things that made KnB so relatable to me when I stumbled upon it a few years later.)

We already had the idea that there would be two competing detectives, and I was to be the other one, while the most charismatic and natural performer in our group was to be the other. (I can't even describe her, she was just oozing character, you couldn't help but want to follow whatever character she was playing, the most, and she shined the most in boisterous comedy.) She naturally stole the show, so I figured I could use that to play with expectations. The two detectives disagreed about everything, so I wrote the play in a way that the audience would expect the vibrant Mr. Forrest to be the main hero and root for him, and my friend's expert performance would distract the audience from the fact that boring Cherry wasn't there just to provide an argument, she was actually the one presenting the real clues in subtle ways, often non-verbally.

Yeah, I very shamelessly wanted to create something that could prove that someone like me could (1) act a role that was more complex and demanding than a tree in the background and (2), even be the main hero. :D To my satisfaction, it worked really well. (I was also really lucky to just have the kind of chemistry on stage with the girl who was playing Mr. Forrest that it felt like we were reading each other's thoughts. We were such beginners that we kept forgetting and skipping lines, and each of them was of course crucial because there's a tightly packed logic to murder mysteries, but each time, we were able to improvise together and react to each other's prompts so instinctively that we could change the story on the spot so well that nobody could have noticed we'd even made a mistake if they hadn't seen the play already. Remains one of the more memorable experiences of my life, even though I didn't continue acting.)

Here we have the main suspect Pablo, a family friend of the Casanova's, at the front, Forrest and Cherry on either side, and the other two suspects, the Casanova siblings, above. In the middle is my cat Aatu. 😆 I could write a whole story about just the adventures of my cat on stage.

The last problem I ran into was the scene where I would reveal the murderer, because even if previously the whole point had been that my character would be less interesting to follow than Mr. Forrest, now she couldn't be, she would have to match Mr. Forrest in sharing the audience's attention evenly, while essentially info-dumping, which made it even harder, because that's already hard to do in an interesting way. For a while I felt really stuck with that, but then I realised there was something I could do to draw attention: I could draw. So, while I explained how the murder was committed, I drew it on a flip board. That made it both easier to follow, and even if I still wasn't interesting, what I was doing was interesting enough to sustain the audience's attention. Especially when Mr. Forrest cried out pretty much everyone's favourite line:

"Huh and bah! So, you've been doodling a bit to pass the time! How ridiculous..."

(You had to be there and hear it.)

It worked especially great, because the murder involved a lot of visual mechanics. (Drawing was also a great help for me in remembering my lines, lol!)

I'm telling all this, because these are all key factors in how these characters came to be, and what they later evolved into, when I couldn't leave them alone (or they wouldn't leave me alone). I began to turn the story into a more serious one for a novel/comic adaptation/"reboot". The main characters, Valter Forrest and Cherry Stone, became partners instead of rivals, and the society they live in became a patriarchal dystopian nightmare. Cherry turned from an introvert revelling in obscurity, into an extrovert forced into obscurity, because women aren't allowed to work in her society. (I didn't want to write about "myself" for a "serious" story, and I felt it would make for a more interestingly tragic story, if the main character was someone who was excellent, but was held back from using her skills by society. I also thought that an extroverted genius would be a breath of fresh air.) Mr. Forrest turned from an obnoxious idiot, into a rich guy who has his life laid out for him, but he just wants to be an actor, which his traditional family doesn't approve of. The other characters survived in some form. For example, my friend who played Pablo said the character looked like a gay mailman, so that's what he became. : D The world is a mix of steampunk and fantasy.

I wrote the new version in early university years, but it remains in progess because I haven't been satified with either my plotting or my drawing skills for this yet, so I keep starting over. Here Valter Forrest is the level of klutz that he accidentally solves a murder that has national level of interest, and becomes famous overnight. His fiancée, who likes to bully him, and has his father wrapped around her finger too, convinces the father to finally force his son to "become something", so Valter is forced to become a detective. Valter has no clue how to do the job, and his only relief is in thinking that it'll eventually be obvious that he just had beginner's luck and the whole thing will be forgotten. But his "luck" seems to continue. Valter begins to receive anonymous drawings of the culprits, and each time they turn out to lead him to the right direction. Eventually, Valter meets Cherry, who reveals herself as the one solving the cases for him, and when the two find that their interests align, they begin a partnership. The world is Valter's stage while he plays a detective, and Cherry has a cover for her work, she just needs to write Valter's lines.

Other than the classic Conan Doyle and Christie stuff, I was definitely influenced by Detective Conan, but I think I also have enough of my own touch to make this work. Eventually.

Here's another drawing, probably from the summer between high school and starting university, which was sort of in the middle of the characters' evolution. Their looks have begun to change, but the picture still has the play's dynamic, Mr. Forrest thinking he's excellent, having put together a word (eng. "open trap") from the letters, while Cherry is picking up the crucial letter he didn't notice. I'm sure you can figure out what the real word is supposed to be. :D

Thanks for the ask, I especially love reminiscing about the early days of the latter project, because it was one of those defining works without which I wouldn't be the writer or the person I am. (Lol, but it's very true. The play was one of the things that made high school for all of us, we don't see each other often but whenever we do, we still talk about that damn play every time, 13 years later.) Looking back, there are so many stupid and nonsensical elements in the play that I wouldn't be caught dead writing today, but it remains so nostalgic to me, nonetheless, and there's still some good stuff that will probably survive to the final version when I get it out.

Here's the WIP list if anyone else is interested.

[saintsenara]

everlasting ink harry potter/ginny weasley teen | 6.2k words

‘blood is thicker than water,’ they all muttered, conspiratorially, when percy left. but, ginny will think, as delphini manages to turn harry into a teddy bear and run into the crystalline stream, water is just as life-giving as blood.

ginny weasley has always been a magnet for dark-haired orphans. what's one more?

this piece was written for week ten of @ladiesofhpfest, on the theme of daughters [you can find the masterlist for this week's fics here].

as i’ve said elsewhere about this piece, i am not ordinarily a hinny fan. i am a sweety, though, and was perfectly happy to be the sort of lovely lass who would write noted twee hinny girly @whinlatter her favourite couple, as a treat.

i've also written her some notes.

my reasoning for thinking that harry and ginny don’t really work is that, frankly, i think ginny deserves better. after all, she spends most of the seven-book canon being kept at arm’s length from harry’s mission - with a brief, and iconic, burst of forcing her way in during order of the phoenix - because he spends books one to four not really interested in her (which, fair, i tried to hang around with my brother’s friends when i was little and it was not well received) and because he spends books six and seven actualising her into a place of safety, a person who needs to be protected, rather than his supporter and equal in the task he has been dealt.

as i’ve written about many times - and as i’ve had numerous enjoyable conversations with @ashesandhackles about - i cannot even imagine how furious i would have been if i were ginny, to discover that my boyfriend seemed to be constitutionally unwilling to acknowledge that i spent the period in which deathly hallows takes place as a resistance leader in my own right.

but above and beyond this, i also think that the pre-epilogue harry is remarkably self-centred when it comes to his trauma. i don’t think this is malicious - or even particularly intentional - but i always find it striking that harry believes himself to be the only person of his acquaintance who is badly affected by dementors, or whose family was hunted down by the death eaters, or who was devastated to see sirius die.

or who was manipulated by tom riddle.

harry’s relationship with the young voldemort is incredibly interesting, not least for the way in which he separates this voldemort (attractive, orphaned, at home in hogwarts) out from the one who killed his parents. that harry understands and empathises with voldemort’s issues - especially his colossal childhood trauma - better than dumbledore does is one of the key themes of the series, and it is - of course - one facet of the purity-of-soul which makes him the books’ hero.

but it is also something ginny can’t ever relate to. after all, the voldemort that ruined her life was the one that harry feels sorry for.

the shadow of ginny’s first year is something which is glaring in canon by its absence. this isn’t, i think, harry’s fault, and nor do i think it’s jkr’s - that chamber of secrets needs to resolve itself neatly with an ‘and then everything was fine’ is a genre convention, since the book is children’s literature. but i do think that it’s something which is really valuable to explore.

because we do get hints that ginny is traumatised by her experience with riddle’s diary even when the books are still conforming to the conventions of children’s stories - above all, as mentioned in everlasting ink, that she seems to be equally as affected by the dementor on the train in prisoner of azkaban as harry is.

and yet all the attention goes to him.

everlasting ink was, then, an attempt to deviate from my usual way of looking at this tension in harry and ginny’s relationship (break them up) and choose a different path (keep them together and happy). and i only had to scream into a pillow once or twice to get that done.

harry does not, i think it’s fair to say, initially appear to be acquitting himself well in the rekindled relationship. he throws himself into being the saviour of the world with a righteousness which blinkers him to anyone else's needs, he never asks ginny about what she is going through, he continues to view her as something to protect, he doesn’t dream about her when he’s reliving his almost-death, and - perhaps worst of all - he foists a daughter on her without asking.

[but perhaps we can forgive him this - after all, he doesn’t really have any experience of motherhood which isn’t sacrificial, or mothers who make their children something other than the entire focus of their self-conception. although i do still think he might have spent a little bit of time thinking about why plopping a toddler with the patented riddle face (those muggle genes are strong, lord voldemort is turning in his grave) on his girlfriend might not have been the best idea he’s ever had…]

this is the part of the author’s note where i out myself as a delphini stan account. [i think her conception makes sense! the entire point of the series is that lord voldemort can't outrun basic human biology! it’s not his fault that he was daydreaming about horcruxes when slughorn was trying to teach him sexual education!] the bellamort baby is a great little plot device for an examination of all sorts of people’s post-war neuroses, and she’s really delivering here, providing a little window not only into harry and ginny’s relationship but into ginny’s wider understanding of her position in her family.

it’s always struck me that ron’s belief, expressed in deathly hallows, that ginny is the favourite child doesn’t seem to be reflected in canon (the favourite child, by quite some distance, is clearly bill). which isn’t to say that ron’s feelings of neglect are invalid - he clearly is overlooked! even though his parents love him and are trying their best! in particular, i've always noticed that ginny’s suffering during her first year doesn’t make her special within the family - as she points out in this piece, nobody ever remembers that she nearly dies.

but there is also a gendered implication to what the locket spills about ron’s darkest secrets - that he thinks that ginny is special within the family solely because she is a daughter. and i have always wondered how that experience - of being the last and longed-for girl to make the family complete - might weigh on her.

so the main familial relationship examined in this piece is the mother and daughter one: ginny and delphini; hermione and rose, and - of course - ginny and her own mother.

i’m always struck that molly weasley must - like her narrative mirror, narcissa malfoy - be quite lonely. this is, i think, not exactly what the narrative wants us to read her as: the text sets her up as central to the weasleys and pseudo-weasleys’ worlds, and most scenes set at either the burrow or grimmauld place take place around mealtimes, with kitchens and dining rooms cast in the story as molly’s domain. and, while this association of good mothers with domestic labour is something i am critical of in the series, i do acknowledge that it makes narrative sense in a way which evidently isn’t intended to be condescending. the weasleys are harry’s first experience of the family life he desires above all else, which - naturally - features as its maternal figure someone who is the polar opposite of the detached, brittle, and cold petunia.

but, on the other hand, the narrative excludes molly from the rest of the family once the domestic sphere is left. she is the only one of them not to like quidditch (there is, after all, no meaningful reason why she would miss the world cup if she did), she doesn’t seem to have any friends of her own (whereas arthur, who seems to be sincerely popular in the ministry, does), and the child with whom she is most aligned - percy - is estranged from her for much of the series. in terms of personality, she lacks the daring streak which defines the other weasleys, she is more interested in social convention, and she is less flexible in how she defines things like ambition or success.

and i think it’s worth noting that this loneliness is gendered. all of the weasley children - and arthur - help out around the house, absolutely, and i don’t think that it’s ever possible to suggest that ron and his brothers become the sort of boors who don’t lift a finger while their wives do everything; but molly’s place within the family is still defined by providing. she is a table or a hand-knitted jumper or a cake. and the rest of the weasleys, who go out and live active lives away from the home, are not.

i always wonder if this is something we’re supposed to read behind molly’s dislike of fleur. that, maybe, she was hoping for a daughter-in-law who would be a kindred spirit, and gets instead someone who considers any sort of domestic role to be beneath her. it is, undoubtedly, also something which features in her relationship with ginny.

and so everlasting ink deals with ginny maturing from an adolescent chafing against her mother’s experience of womanhood - which she sees through her child’s eyes as meaning playing with dolls and being a housewife - into something which understands the complex web of dreams and disappointments which drive molly’s life, and which enables her to embrace the similarities between the two of them she might have once run from.

because they are very similar. above all, i always think that the canonical ginny must also be quite lonely. we are told she’s popular, but all of her friendships seem to be tenuous - she never writes to or visits anyone, harry never notices her with a particular close friend, she spends a full summer not seeing her boyfriend (an insult from jkr towards dean’s canonical rizz).

in particular, i never feel that her friendship with hermione is as close as fanon makes out (nor, indeed, as close as harry suggests it is in half-blood prince - he should have a think about how likely it seems that hermione has any time for other friends when she’s locked in a codependent triad with him and ron), and my view has always been that post-war ginny and hermione would take a long time to become comfortable with each other. some of this is just due to them having to learn how to let their opposing personality traits work together (ginny has no interest in hermione’s constant desire to argue, push, and debate - she’s going to see it, like harry does, as nagging and meddling), but it’s also due to the fact that neither of them can really relate to the defining experiences of the other’s life in the way teenage girls might ordinarily be expected to be able to.

but they get there. even if bitching about their daughters is the way they have to do it.

the harry potter series’ quasi-mystical view of motherhood means that it has a tendency to treat adoption as something negative. we have three examples of kinship adoption in canon - harry’s by petunia, neville’s by his grandmother, and teddy’s by andromeda - and all come about because of a tragedy in which the biological mother sacrifices herself for the anti-voldemort cause.

all three are also treated as something which is a cause of suffering to the adoptee - which, crucially, the series thinks is a good thing. harry’s neglect by the dursleys is considered character-building, and his orphanhood is set up several times in the text as the cause of his ability to understand love.

[on the flip side, voldemort’s own orphanhood is not permitted to be an excuse for his own struggle with the concept of love, and the narrative blames merope gaunt for not staying alive for him, by implying that she could simply have chosen not to bleed to death in childbirth if she’d had little of lily potter’s courage.]

but adoption is neutral. it happens for all sorts of reasons and it provokes all sorts of emotional responses in the people involved. and so it was important to me to show that ginny went on a journey from feeling as though the fact that delphini wasn’t her biological child was a bad thing to not caring about that in the slightest, and that all four potter children grow up equally loved by their parents and extended family.

more specifically, i wanted to focus on ginny choosing not to care about things like the tragedy of orphanhood to the detriment of being happy and silly. i talk a lot about how i find the aspect of love which the harry potter series focuses on - love as suffering and sacrifice, love which is rooted in loss, love which has, to some degree, an element of fate behind it - insufficient. the canon narrative rarely approaches love as something comforting, pleasurable, self-indulgent, or fun - indeed, harry and ginny’s brief burst of a love which is all of these things is snatched away at the end of half-blood prince so that harry can focus on love-as-sacrifice - and it also rarely approaches love as something people choose. love drives characters’ choices - snape chief among them - but the text tends to imply that these choices were made because the love itself was innate and unstoppable.

but that’s kind of bullshit. in the vast majority of relationships we have in our lives, love - whether romantic, platonic, or familial - is a choice freely and constantly made. love as a choice - above all, how love is a very strange choice - is a key theme in everlasting ink, both from the perspective of harry and ginny’s decision to make their relationship work and from the perspective of them becoming part of a sprawling post-war found family.

this gave me a chance to explore one of molly’s most underappreciated traits - that she is someone who collects waifs and strays, and that she is extraordinarily generous in how she opens up herself to these people. i think this is often missed in fanon criticism of her for meddling or being overbearing in the lives of people who aren’t her immediate family - particularly in relation to sirius in order of the phoenix. i wanted her to be the source of the idea that ‘water is just as life-giving as blood’, and for her obvious affection for delphini to be a turning point in ginny’s relationship both with her own role as a mother and with her role as a daughter.

in particular, i wanted it it to change how ginny thinks about heredity.

having to learn that your children have lives outside of you is a complicated experience for all parents, but for the parents of adopted children there is the additional complication of knowing that your child has the right to uncover who their biological parents were, no matter how painful that might be. for harry and ginny, this means becoming comfortable with the idea that delphini might want to have a relationship with the malfoys, or to speak to rodolphus lestrange about her mother, or to think positively about her father.

this would be difficult for them to face. obviously. but i think it would also be healing for them to realise that lord voldemort was not just a one-dimensional caricature of absolute evil but also someone with lots of admirable personality traits. (nor that the positive experiences which they - ginny especially, you can prise the headcanon that they were sincerely bffs from my cold, dead hands - had with him based entirely on lies). delphini is - both physically and in terms of personality - exactly like him, which means that she is funny and theatrical and daring and cunning and possessed of a great taste in tattoos. [he is also, as fans of the asenora cinematic universe will know, the source of her sweet tooth.]

the same is true of bellatrix - that she is very like both andromeda and tonks is a headcanon i’m wedded to, and i like the idea of harry and ginny coming to see her with more nuance as they begin to understand what she had in common with two women they adore.

[i’m not sure they ever get over delphini not liking quidditch, though - but i think they can both begrudgingly respect that voldemort learning the principles of unaided flight because he was terrible on a broom is iconic.]

[veeples]

book recommendations

@lavampira AND @narrativefoiltrope beloveds tagged me! thank you for the tag dani and i'm still soooo thrilled you loved goth western so much <3

tagging: @nerdferatum and @winesharksea and anyone else! tbh if you're a mutual of mine and you're on storygraph hmu, i love following other people and seeing what they're reading.

1. the last book I read:

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty — I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting to tear up from a memoir detailing her year working for a crematory, but it ended up being a very touching experience in understanding how Caitlin went from college graduate to eventual Ask a Mortician (one of my fave youtubers I miss her so much). It is a book that deals with death, both the traumatic and the relatively peaceful, so maybe not the LIGHTEST of reads, but one I actually wanna re-visit soon!

2. a book I recommend:

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin — I got recommended this series by @queerbrujas, and wow! I think if you're someone whose interested for a sort of, soft start into sci-fi, the elements are there and add value, but the emotional arcs and world building that unfolds is just so masterfully done. Once I really got into the first book, I tore through the next two in the series with relative ease.

3. a book that I couldn’t put down:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo — This is just a super fun fantasy read!! It makes me wanna read more like, fast paced heist sort of novels. Each character in the ensemble has a strong personality so they all stand out from each other, but they complement each other well and offer interesting relationships with each other! I was so enamored by the book I had to run out to a store to buy the sequel the night I finished it.

4. a book I’ve read twice (or more):

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir — Funny thing is, I almost never re-read books because I feel like, good God I already have so many on my to be read list that I keep adding onto, I don't have time to re-read books. But this series has a ton of re-readability value, and it's almost necessary to take a second or third or fourth pass (depending on how insane you are) to pick up on the subtleties and the continuous narrative of themes that Muir puts down once you get past the memes and lesbians. I'm putting the whole series here because I've read Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Nona the Ninth 2-3 times now and will probably re-read again before Alecto the Ninth comes out (impatient grumbling).

5. a book on my TBR:

Sterling House by Alix E. Harrow — Can I be completely honest, I actually don't know that much about this book. A librarian gave me a little book magazine when I was picking up some books one day and this book was on the cover. And the cover was just very pretty. I'm a very shallow person, you see. Also a bit like a bird because I see something pretty and I want it. But I also really wanna read Dungeon Meshi, so there's that too.

6. a book I’ve put down:

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese by Michael Paterniti — This book was honestly such a drag to read. Slow paced and at 80% in, I still hadn't gotten to the confrontation between the original cheesemaker and his best friend who sold his family's cheese and business for money, which is so hyped up. There's a point to it taking so fucking long, and the point is, that's apparently just how the people the author visited told stories. Long winding tales with bunches of offshoots. Probably great as an orally told story. Bit miserable as written word.

7. a book on my wishlist:

The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Stefan Timmermans, Pamela Prickett — This one I saw in an e-mail for new books that came out in March, I think, and I have an interest in funeral practices and issues in modern day death management, thanks to being such a big fan of Caitlin Doughty. This book deals with the growing phenomenon of the unclaimed dead, which got touched upon in one of Caitlin's books, but not expanded upon. I try not to buy books if I can avoid it, but this one being so new and probably a little too niche for my library, I'll have to purchase it if I wanna read it!

8. a favorite book from my childhood:

??? — I don't think I have one to speak of that I can remember. I remember really being enchanted with some book about a girl finding a secret garden, so maybe it was Literally just The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgsen Burnett. Or like, I really liked the kid's book about the old lady who swallows a fly. Does that count???

9. a book you would give to a friend:

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson — This book was recommended to me by a friend, specifically the audiobook version. And wow, yeah! I kind of judge audiobook, and really narrator quality, by this one! The narrator put so much love and emotion into narrating the book, which really highlighted the emotional high points and made them punchier. This book may have made cry a little because I am always a sucker about characters who feel they don't fit in anywhere, who feel odd, who feel different, but find support and community and love with other people who feel the same way. So, like, I would definitely give this book to someone if they wanted an introduction to how good audiobooks can be.

10. a book of poetry or lyrics you own:

The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda — I bought the bilingual version of this book last year so I could see how Spanish is used in poetry, and then found out that he has a complex way of using Spanish so maybe it's not that useful. <3 And then I didn't read it at all, it's still on my bookshelf. Judging me. u_u I'll get to it one day.

11. a nonfiction book you own:

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado — Don't remember how this book got on my radar, but I went out and bought it and was so pleasantly surprised by how the style Machado uses in it to detail her memoir of an abusive relationship. So it's not a light read whatsoever, but just by style alone made it very evocative, it almost reads like literary fiction. I never thought about approaching memoirs or non-fiction in what I figure is a kind of non-standard way, so it stands out from the other non-fiction books I've read.

12. what are you currently reading:

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver — So this is apparently a sort of, like, modern retailing of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, which I would have got, except like, I'm not that big of a literary nerd. So I had to look that up. Really, it caught my attention because I'm currently re-listening to a fave podcast, Old Gods of Appalachia, and this book is set in like, 80s-90s Appalachia so it's adjacent enough to my interest. So far it is masterfully written and has such a strong voice for the narrator and protagonist. It's also a thick ass book, well over 500 pages which is a bit out of my usual range, but it's been nice to sit down with a longer story that feels like I'm sitting down to listen to the guy tell me his life's story.

13. what are you planning on reading next:

??? — Bruv who knows? I don't plan these things until I'm done with whatever I'm reading now u.u. I have a little gay romance I bought during indie bookstore day and I also promised @sysba to read some other Chinese manhua with some other sad tragic gay boys. It'll probably be that one.

[linde-writes]

While obviously a big part of my negativity about the finale is just "aww, my favorite character died", I think the worst part is just how unexpected it was. I'm used to my favorite characters dying or coming to unhappy ends, but not once did it occur to me after season 1 that Izzy's story might conclude with anything worse than him leaving the ship/show to find his own happiness.

Yeah, it's a show about pirates, but that means fuck all about anything other than the setting. I'm not going to recommend Black Sails to someone whose favorite movie is Muppet Treasure Island.

And even black comedies tend to toe the line when it comes to who dies and how it's handled. Another comedy I've gotten into recently is Derry Girls, which takes place in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It would've been ~realistic~ for any of the main characters to get shot or die in a bomb, right? And yet the only likable character who dies is a minor character who gets an aneurysm, and the episode ends with a funeral and everyone grieving. Even with What We Do In The Shadows, a show where everyone is an unrepentant serial killer, everyone in our main original cast is still alive.

Even when one ignores genre conventions, the first season set a clear standard for how death was handled in this show: it was a thing that happened to animal sidekicks and characters we weren't supposed to like, something so unserious that absolutely everyone expected Lucius to survive his supposed demise.

Ivan's death might have served as forewarning*, but one offhand mention of the death of the least developed/impactful crew member who everyone already knew was going to be written out does not make up for the sheer amount of confirmation in season 2 that yes, this is a show where characters we're emotionally invested in don't die. Our expectation that Lucius survived was rewarded. Ed and Stede both survive cannonballs to the face. Auntie's ship blows up and she just inexplicably shows up later, wounded but alive. They literally turn a character into a seagull to whittle down the cast. Izzy himself manages to get up right after losing his leg and shooting himself in the head.

It's a good example of why one shouldn't break basic audience expectations of genre.

((* and I didn't care for how that was handled either. The non-impact of Ivan's death and Buttons' "death" made it much, much harder to sell that the crew actually cared for each other.))

[sunriseverse]

For the ask game for fic writers: 2, 8, 10, 20, 27, 37, 45, 52, 55, 75, 88, 99

ah, sass, thank you! i love talking about writing :) this is going below the cut because it got long.

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

hm...................i was going to say that i don't usually have this problem and usually just run into the issue of my own mind refusing to write something that doesn't take into account the societal and cultural context i'm writing the characters in, but then i remembered the time i was writing god knows i can never get rid of habits and i was about halfway through, sleep deprived as fuck, and texted my friend in an exasperated, defeated tone, quote, "the show has repeatedly made me say “ugh fuck there’s a blowjob in my future isn’t there” which sounds wild out of context but the context is i think i can’t avoid writing them fucking in this fic". sometimes i cannot control the characters sometimes they really just want to have sex and i have to deal with this.

8. what’s your relationship with constructive criticism and feedback like? do you seek it out? how well do you take it?

if you try and give me "concrit" on my fanfic then i rip you to shreds in dms with my friends. i write to excise the spirit of creativity from where it's possessing my physical form, not to have people try and tell me how to "better" my writing. i'm aware my writing tends to have a lot of things people don't usually enjoy (heavily descriptive, emotion-focused, present tense, a more realistic approach to tropes or themes, etc) and i, frankly, don't care. my writing is for me; everyone else is just getting to enjoy it because i'm egotistical enough to post it. (that said, for my original writing i welcome concrit, because i actually have the intent of having them published. i just haven't managed to get around to finishing many original projects, historically.)

10. at what point in the process do you come up with titles, and how easy or hard is that for you?

i do not come up with titles until the moment i have to post to ao3. i hate coming up with titles and am very grateful when i figure out a lyric from a song or a line from a poem fits it. well..........usually, anyway. all my sunrise fics have had pre-planned titles—but, then again, sunrise is very much an outlier, so.

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

i don't think i've really had a defined trope across my writing the last few years? i guess if i had to choose one, probably the 5+1 format or derivations of it.

27. do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? 28. And who do you share them with?

for people to read my rough drafts i would have to have rough drafts. i genuinely don't give a fuck about "perfecting" a piece, whatever gets written the first time is what gets posted. could my writing be "better"? probably! do i care? no. i wouldn't say my writing is the best ever, but i personally like it and that's what matters. that said, i do send screenshots of sections i really like to my friends as i write, because i like making them yell at me.

37. when creating characters, what comes first: appearance, backstory, motivation, personality, something else?

this i guess only really applies to ocs; in that case, i usually come up with a character archetype, an archetype i'm trying to subvert, or an overarching narrative from which i can extrapolate characters. after that, i come up with names based on that, and then appearances are what i come up with last, usually.

45. name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

only three???? no. absolutely not. @lungache @butchybats @lucientelrunya @owengrose @lunarriviera @lunanoc and probably more whose urls i am forgetting.

52. how many unfinished ideas/stories are you working on at the same time?

oh god......................i have so many unfinished fics T^T i have ones that are unfinished but actively being worked on, unfinished but not actively being worked on but which i think about regularly, unfinished and i wish i could finish them but i just never have the time, unfinished because they were a joint project with a friend and then we never finished them and now we're both too busy and not in those fandoms anymore, and unfinished and rotting forever in the cabinet of abandoned wips.

55. do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

uhhhhh okay so. i have. a megop fic (transfomers aligned continuity, pre canon), another megop fic (also aligned continuity), a dc fic, and a gotham fic. the transformers fics would probably be most likely to be completed because i actually have detailed notes for them, the dc fic is dead in the water, and the gotham fic i would have to rewatch the show and i don't need to hurt myself like that again.

75. do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

yeah i need to know at least the basic narrative beats before i start writing. often this means me rambling at my friends in our dms to work out my ideas and the approach i want to take, but i can't start something without knowing how it ends because otherwise it'll never be finished.

88. if you could have another author write your wip for you (bc we all dream of this occasionally), who would it be?

hmmmmm i think i would make @xueyang write my mdzs fics because i think they could make them funny. and good. and also emotionally devastating. (hi mar i'm going to write that fic for you i Swear.)

99. was being a writer a dream of yours when you were little? or did it spring up when your older? or is it just a hobby? 

actually i never expected to become a writer, despite having been writing since i was a young child. i actually thought i wanted to be a fashion designer. which to be fair i guess kind of happened since i can't stop drawing outfit/character designs. but yeah i didn't expect to become a Writer the way that i am now. it's easily one of the foundational aspects of my life and daily routines, and i could not have expected that the first time i started writing.

[laracrofted]

Aww I love this so much, what better way to end the year by spreading some positivity. I apologize in advance if this is a little long and if I say things that I say often, but every word comes straight from the bottom of my heart. I absolutely wanted to thank you all because getting to know you, even if not in person, and your works was truly an enormous pleasure and one of the best moments of this year.💞

@roosterforme : I know I've already mentioned you on various positivity nights but I can't help but mention you again for the help you've given me throughout this year with your stories and more. You were one of the first authors whose stories I read and to say that I fell in love from the first words of each of your series would not do justice to reality, because I not only fell in love but I felt understood, comforted and less alone about themes that you have written and treated with a unique delicacy. Even though I have told you a thousand times now (and hoping not to be too repetitive) I want to tell you again how much I appreciate your talent, your love and your care that you put into your stories, full of details and characterizations of the characters which make them unique and special. And as I often tell you, I immensely appreciate your ability to make me fall more in love with Bradley every time for the wonderful way in which you always manage to write about him. As you now know, your masterlist has become my comfort place and your stories my routine and I couldn't be happier about it. For all the love I feel for all your work, Is It Working For You has a special meaning and place for me. Your stories are something I often think about and I love rereading them to remind me of details that perhaps I didn't remember perfectly or even just for the sake of reliving the emotions written. Thank you so much with all my heart for everything 🫶🏼

@cherrycola27 : you were absolutely the first person whose series I read and I must say that it is thanks to your writing ability that I continued to read more and more stories in this fandom. The first series I read was Till Death? I was so passionate and captivated from the first chapter that I asked you if I could be tagged because I absolutely didn't want to miss a single update and from that moment on I haven't stopped reading your beautiful stories. I love how you always come up with original ideas and then develop a story from them. An example is your Red, White and Rooster series which I loved immensely and which left me in suspense at the end of each chapter. I appreciate so much how your stories are always a swing of emotions and it is precisely this in my opinion that makes them unique! You always manage to keep me in suspense and sometimes make me emotional with endings i don't expect. I’m literally obsessed with False God series because I love and find it brilliant the way you manage to mix Greek mythology with everyday life! Thank you so much with all my heart🫶🏼

@bradshawsbaby : another person I couldn't help but mention is you, because with your stories of Mr and Mrs Bradshaw you helped me a lot in my worst days and in the moments when I was leaving and entering the hospital. In the moments when I started reading their stories I always managed to forget about reality and be transported into their magnificent world. Not to mention one of my absolute favorite series as you already know which is Si vis amari ama, your way of describing the scenes, the care in writing about the environments or the customs of the time always fascinates me. It still lives in my mind as I found it interesting and appreciated how carefully and precisely you described the preparation and making of bread in one chapter. In addition obviously to all the descriptions of the environments, one in particular that I hold dear was the way you described the market and conveyed the idea of ​​chaos and confusion given by so many people. And as I have said several times, the love I feel for the fact that you used various terms and phrases in the Latin language. I think this all shows how much passion and care goes into each chapter. I've often noticed that you apologize because you haven't updated the series in a while and honestly it breaks my heart every time I see you apologize because I tell you with all my heart you absolutely don't have to apologize for anything because what you do is already more than necessary. Take all the time you need and don't feel pressured at all, when you have time to update the series know that I will be there ready to read it more than happy. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for everything.🫶🏼

@beyondthesefourwalls : I wanted to thank you so much too for your ability to make your characters feel the emotions they are feeling. While I was reading Remember you even when I don't you made me feel all the pain of pumpkin in seeing her husband not remember her, I loved how you developed the story. I love how in your stories it's like riding a roller coaster for everything i feel and I love even more how in many of your stories you talk and underline how certain loves never end, no matter what they have to face, they often go through immense turns and then return. This love came back to me is the perfect proot, which made me shed more than one tear and which I loved immensely. Every time I receive a notification of your story I'm so happy because I already know it will be amazing. I love the way you can make conversations interesting and often with an ironic and teasing streak. Thank you so much with all my heart 🫶🏼

@sailor-aviator : as I already told you, I discovered your blog thanks to your Fool's Fare series and from that day on, that was the series written by you that captured me the most, obviously without taking anything away from the other wonderful stories that fill your masterlist. There is something that fascinates me incredibly about that story, the part that literally stuck in my mind was the description of the first entrance of Jake's character. The way you described that scene was so perfect and precise that it felt like the scene was unfolding before my eyes, and I have to be honest but I often like to go and reread it because of how beautiful it is. I love all your other stories, I love how you can take ideas and develop the story around them in such a detailed and twisty way. And I think you have an extreme ability to transport the reader into the story that leaves me breathless every time. I love how, in addition to the chapters, you write various drabbles that explain and delve into different themes and scenes inherent to the main story, thus making the reader more and more in tune with the characters thanks also to the different points of view. I also love how you always have new ideas for new stories and how each of your series is always so detailed and intriguing. Thank you so much with all my heart.🫶🏼

@notroosterbradshaw : I've told you plenty of times how much I love your The Boyfriend Experience series, and how much you can make me cry with every chapter of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. As for The boyfriend experience, it was the first series of yours that I read and just from the summary I was already completely in love with it. I mean, what's better than Bradley pretending to be your boyfriend? I loved how you managed to convey the tension between them, how behind their every gesture there was a feeling that they both tried to hide and how luckily in the end they both stopped resisting their feelings and let themselves go. I also loved how you were able to build the anticipation before they could finally be together in such a real way. Your ability to make me cry, smile, feel butterflies in my stomach and feel happiness never ceases to amaze me. Every time I read your work I am amazed by your magnificent versatility in writing and conveying happier emotions as well as sadder emotions or moving from a more angst series to a more fluff one. I love how you make every dialogue so real and so relatable. Thank you with all my heart.🫶🏼

@ohtobeleah : I discovered your blog while reading your Iris series and to say that I was impressed from the first chapter would be an understatement. I love your ability to create stories that leave me in suspense and that with each passing chapter I literally can't wait to read the next one because I'm so intrigued and taken by the story. Another thing I really love is your ability to set up the chapters, how you manage to insert flashbacks that help us understand and get to know the characters more deeply and add details to the plot. Without forgetting your ability to develop relationships between characters, write extremely complex and nuanced characters and slowly reveal more and more details that make the story even more multifaceted and help you better understand the various perspectives of the characters. As you know, I'm loving the series Was it over? when you said you wanted to write this series the topic and the plot immediately interested me but I never expected to be totally taken by this one. As I told you, even though it breaks my heart with each chapter, I can't wait to read more because of the beauty with which it is written. Thank you from the bottom of my heart🫶🏼

@mamachasesmayhem : I will never tire of appreciating your ability to create your stories not only by writing them but also by creating the whole outline, which in my opinion makes diving into the world of the series even more interesting. I know I've said it before but the way I love the Jake and Honey universe is just incredibly huge. I loved how you developed their story and how precisely you took care of every little detail. She Ain't Takin' Your Call to the What If Universe literally left me speechless with how good it was. I remember at the end of the chapter I was so anxious to know what decision Honey had made. I loved the way you structured it and how you showed Honey's growth and how her relationships have changed over the years. The detail I loved the most was the fact that you wrote and explored different episodes during her different ages, I think this detail made it much easier to connect with her. I also wanted to make a special mention to your ability to create digital daggers, they never fail to make me smile, they are truly wonderful. Thank you so much with all my heart🫶🏼

@sometimesanalice : last but not least I wanted to thank you. The first series of yours that I read was Like i can and I was struck by the first lines. I loved the way you developed the story and how the ending literally managed to surprise me with a detail that I never expected. I read all the chapters with extreme interest because I entered the story immediately and I couldn't wait to find out who she would choose. I want to give a special quote to Bob's friend with the dogs, I think this detail was one of the moments in which I laughed the most when reading a series, it was truly epic and every time I think about it it puts a smile on my face. I love the detailed and precise way in which you write each of your stories and how each of them manages to be unique and unforgettable. I also love and appreciate the time you take every time to reply to my comments, I really like the fact that with your answers you make me enter even more into the story thanks to the fact that you add small details or your thoughts. Thank you so much for everything🫶🏼

You are all extremely talented, sweet and kind! Reading your stories and interacting with you is always a pleasure! I truly appreciate the passion, love and time you all dedicate to your work and for this I can never thank you enough! Thank you so much for keeping me company, for making me laugh (even cry sometimes) for taking the time to respond to my (often very long) comments and above all making my year better with your wonderful stories and with your availability and generosity. Grazie mille!

I wish you that 2024 will be a year full of love, joy, happiness and successes and that all your wishes will come true!💗✨

what an amazing love note 🤍 have a happy new year!

end of the year positivity night 💌